Mr Mr here Mr J Mr C here M thank you uh members of the bo I sent everybody an email going over the agenda um and explaining a lot of the it earlier today I would hope everybody had a chance to look over that but obviously you have your Delano um emails open in front of you with your Chromebook signer Steve's working on getting on there um but as we go down this agenda for today um after the normal opening stuff the St the statement of adequate notice approval of minutes um does anybody have any questions on the minutes from March 20th 2024 exhibit B it in the about the approval was a motion forting 41 it wasn't on the YouTube video is your email I don't happen in ex it did happen in executive session that we were talking about it but obviously that meeting was subsequently cancelled frankly because it was the right thing to do to have everything that motion was ex Comm yes it was and it's on the like that yes it is so a thank right any other questions about the uh minutes for March 20th 2024 Jen we have Community liaison reports I'm going to move my visitors message to after the student recognition and then we'll have to pray for them um before public comment I'll make my message and then we'll have public comment on agenda items afterward we're going to presentation that's going to be given to us by Delano Administration uh regarding the school within a school transition potential merger of Walnut Street school and Pearson Elementary School obviously more details are going to come out about that during the particular um Regular meeting session and I don't want to to do that now that would be obviously all questions can be asked and can be during um that particular time we're also going to have the budget presentation by our me which is did that exhibit exhibit C there okay um Exhibit C on your drives is also going to be on uh the projector up there before we go into executive session I'm going to have a second time for some public comments after the presentations and then we're going to go into executive session for confidential Personnel matters confidential now we are going to have a motion on the floor for both the school within a school transition of Walnut Street and Pearson Elementary and for the 24 2025 bu um and again all of those questions answered through these presentations that are made not only to the board but to the public as well board members you also received emails from me throughout the week and today um regarding specifics about that that will be gone over with after the budget approval there's an action item on travel and related expens reimbursement for 2004 2025 Marlene correct me if I'm wrong but I believe that is a standard item that gets approved annually yes yes it's part of for a superintendent Report with Dr Fitz uh price notices were distributed to staff who may be affected but a potential vote with the school within a school transition and ongoing reorganization but that is obviously all questions would be directly and blly answered during those presentations the principal's monthly reports are in your confidential drives if somebody has questions on that uh because they could be student related we can do that in the subsequent uh executive session that we'll have shortly so um does anybody have questions on those reports that I can mark that we need to take care of also in executive session so for the if it's stud related on the principal um it's under the superintendent report yeah I'm only on letter a right now for that and the two there um after that will be the student enrollment report I don't know if that's what you have questions on okay go ahead um at our last meeting we talked about including all children in District plac SCH so it might be helpful um I know it's for the 12 through but you know you also have that number of our children places we don't well I can tell you the ones that tuition for but I anything about high school students because we don't have any relationship with child study team that's being prepared now with the inhouse now child study team which is we're starting to get reports on that which is what was reported by Dr Fitz there over the past week or so they' started to get that information back um but as far as prek to8 students that that's the number and we do anticipate data to present to the board on the high school students that we can pay expenditures for um that are out of District um in in subsequent months uh fire drill and uh emergency evacuation drills uh there's going to be a resolution of approve investigating participation in the naval stem project exhibit I was on your drive that was something that I said in the email that um I realized that that one example there was a January application date and talking to Dr Fitz's another program that's coming out that he's aware of that uh has a June application date he gave us this uh information here that we'll be able to go around know if there's anything you want to say prior to um the meeting about this or if that's something you want to address in the meeting itself address okay that's fine um we can address that in the meeting itself but again it's only investigating it um to see if that's something that our students would benefit from as far as participating in the naal stem project and seeing how well they did in the last stem project that they were in I would think that we would do fairly well um the discussion of the date to be the county superintendent via Zoom um that date has been set by the county superintendent said in my email and that date is May 7 at 9:30 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. I did send him something requesting uh that we do it as a small Committee of the board instead of a board of the whole at that time and we can speak together about who we would have in that particular meeting come to a consensus together for that I do know they would probably demand me presid president uh to be in that conversation but a lot of that tone in that conversation frankly is going to depend on some of the VES thaten to stated Ina yes um any experience when the county super calls meeting the board is it is it common practice because I can't explain it correctly you can't have a majority attending that's the common practice I'm Meer Dr fits on the answer but in general if you have more than four board members participating in a board activity then it would have to be advertised and it would have to be open to members of the public so thisp whatever schol are this is a practice the practice very you can meet he can meet with a minority or he can meet with the entire board which you will have you will have to follow the procedure in the process that you follow as a regular board VI it must be advertised made known to the public and you have indicate that no action will be taken and you proceed there but because of the time constraint that we're under uh we we suggest to meet as a partial group and that really we could ask him to meet with a group of the board if you you feel that that urgent that you want to hear director from him so we' be happy put that request in we just can't have all time so if you us know Rel now we are on the budget and finance section uh payment of bills which would be exhibit K and your drives line item transfers exended L basically items 1 through four are your normal monthly items that get approved every month payment of bills line item transfers certifying the uh the monthly account fund statuses and the item item statuses for item five is accepting a grant of $6,500 that I say the Barry Sade actually spearheaded um so give credit to uh to walnut's principal Barry Sade on working to secure that Grant from the signal women's educational organization and uh you know we get some more information from Barry during the meeting regarding that but that's uh you know wonderful new um items six and seven regarding Phoenix advisor LLC and uh the attorney office for Bond counsel are required items uh that we need for going out for the bond referendum for the roof project at our you know at the next election right um in addition Arlene is going to be talking about um a change that the architect contacted her on very recently uh that I did send to you guys via email as well that because you're not just replacing the roof you're going to be replacing the units on the rooftop the classroom ventilators are close to 20 years old and will require replacement as well so that would add a little bit to that um referendum so it it would add 600,000 to the referendum project potentially which would be equivalent to $18 a year um so that would be on top of the $56 so they're still putting that language together that would be that question on the ballot but this is these are the things that we pay that architect to do get that architect does to put these projects together they make sure that we're all in compliance and making sure everything is sa proposed in the correct manner so this just it's a continuation of the um just knowing that the architect is continuing the work and making sure that when we put that question on the ballot that it is the correct question to the are there any questions on the budget and finance section okay seeing none the operations and Facilities section there's a report on maintenance activities ex W on your drive and in previous month uh we reported that we received a grant for prometheum boards they purchased eight prometheum boards for the district through that Grant seven of eight of those boards have been hung in their designated classrooms of Pearson which is a good progress to the report and obviously that eth one would be getting put up you know obviously pretty soon any questions on those reports go ahead um on the report under maintenance is there a way to um to get a guate on Mr Allan notes repairs to the roof and our meeting said it's about I think 2 million it was 2 million now it's going to be 2,600,000 now my question was um are repairs that ongo we get they run to $3,000 and probably thank there something obviously only gets worse over time knowing thats that's something that'll continue to be discussed especially as the architect comes and makes those final presentations to us and the public before that item hits the ballot in no boly Aon rep for Riverside High School will be for me for Riverside High School mine for njsba bcba and Mr M Township committee for personnel items A and B are simply replacing one of the co- softball head coaches from with one in District employee to another item c um is the continuation of the person that we hired as a CAC uh curriculum updat for us so that way not only can that person continue to implement the curriculum after it's written but do professional development for the district as it's implemented um so that's something that Dr Fitz can go over when we do that item D is accepting the uh resignation because he's served his two years as interim principal at the elementary school of Mr pbch you can only serve two years as an interim so he would be uh retiring at the end of the school year so accepting that item e are uh resolutions to accept the retirement of for uh staff members that we have outstanding staff members that we have but you we wish them well obviously in retirement and their future endeavors item f is a resolution to approve the hiring of a sub substitute teacher and as needed substitute teacher for the district um it wouldn't be through an agency that would be paid directly with the district which would be a cost savings versus using an agency um I emailed you guys about old business as well um for the old business God bless you than for the old business uh the library negotiations meeting there's a meeting set up with the township on 7th at 6: p.m. I did speak with Mr Templeton before this meeting so I'd like to acknowledge that and uh I promised to give him a call um after I talk with Dr Fitz about a couple things that we just spoke about as well so um I acknowledge that PR public Mr um regarding new business uh if everybody saw we've been talking about moving toward committees in said a committee of a whole uh what I did is I took everybody that replied back to the survey that I sent out about which committees that you would like to serve on or would have interest in serving on I first put everybody in the Committees that they were interested in serving on and then I filled in blanks keeping three people on each committee but splitting up the work equally so that way each board member is a member of two committees um if you guys had a chance to look at that that's there I put her budget and finance I put Ryan VAR and shm stone for facilities in school safety I put Steven J Ryan VAR and Kim Gardner for curriculum and policy I put Michael mcneel Joshua Sal and shenica stone for communications and community outreach I put Joanne schin Steven Jass and Kim Gardner for co-curricular and athletic activities I put Joshua Celler Rob dancer and Kim Gardner and for strategic planning Michael mcneel joanin and Rob dancer um we can discuss that the public meeting or if anybody wants to switch uh you know that that would be the time kind of to discuss that or somebody wants to go a little bit further I did put three people on each committee I can have obviously up to four without there being inform formed I also know that when you go to committees the president um is an ad hoc kind of member of each committee but doesn't have president in each committee but also serves as a sub on each committee so there's there's some interesting things that are in there um that you know myself or you know anybody in the future uh you know that would be present um would know have to know uh we would have an executive session after oh excuse me were there any questions on Old business or new business or additions to what I ask this um an update on the qac um progress and in our last meeting we talked the goals and objectives being shared and I know I know they were in the October minutes but also um there was a notation about the 2022 23 and I apologize strateg on that and then going back to the goals and objectives um what is the prescribed format you do evaluations is it done like every six months or is it a new M Howes how does EV check the progession annual Ann thank you so that would be in October and it would be toward the end of school year when we do Janu represent coming in oh sorry I was I wanted to add that on new business as well that's my I did email everybody the uh the new Jesse Adams retired from New Jersey school boards Association who was our representative our new representative wants to do a a retreat with us I recomend that we do that at the July board meeting during the work session she said it would last about an hour um so that would cover that time frame and she'll be able to introduce uh herself to us to retreat with us some some building activities learning activities and and kind of strengthen us at that time I figure that would be the best time of budget going on with uh some of the library discussions going on and then every school's graduations and things like that right a little with inters it's a little different but Dr you said you want to talk about please talk about this is an initiative that every school district should engage in and you usually do this uh just before the beginning of the school year uh you talk to your your superintendent of schools and that's where you start saying what are the goals and objectives how will we go about measuring what is our vision for the school district what are our core values uh for the school for the school district and then you can decide whether you going to have qually uh uh checkpoints you know maybe every four months you would say how we doing with goals how the children are do it what are we working on do we need to do we need to reset these goals modify these goals change these it's a it's it's always process in in work okay and so we will help you get started on that school board is uh is an excellent group to guide you through the pro process and to guide us through the process so they'll get down here in July we'll be convened as to to come to work on the goals and the objectives the measurement indicators that we're going to use to see uh the frequency of the work being done in reference to qack we uh we will probably be the last school district this school year to be evaluated by qac okay because there's a lot of work that had to be done and we're continuing to do that work so we going to do as much as we can the best we can when they come for the for the onsite visit they have been they're doing offsite visits with us they are able to look at our data look at the information that's uh that's uh in in the on file and and and start making some recommend recommendations as to what areas we need to improve in you can see that we we are trying to get a little bit ahead of them you see that we we talking about our curriculum we've got to develop robust curriculum here for our youngsters we got to have a comprehensive curriculum we got to take care of the gifted intelligent youngsters we got to take care of these ESL youngsters we got we must have someone to help us to write this curriculum k through eight with connectivity okay continuity and all of the ele of a good curriculum that really will stretch our kids okay so when you see these little fragmented things that we are doing we're kind of dressing ourselves for success and we got a lot of dressing to do okay but we are starting on that and we will eventually be well dressed just like tonight we getting involved in Steam in Ste uh in uh in the stem program okay so we pushing that through very rapidly very quickly to say yeah we have something of the highend children up here at this end we are doing a pretty good job of taking care of our kids but we have to do better okay so so you can feel the urgency in what we're doing and how we're pushing this through to the board and how this board is responding so well to all these initiatives that we to you you know at every meeting and it's and it's going to be about speed it's not going to be any less okay we got a lot of work to do but we have great staff here I want to just tell you we have great staff great people here and they're extremely supported and that we're going to continue for are there any more uh questions or additions for the old business and new business section and we will have a brief executive session to go over a confidential legal matter at the end of the meeting very brief at the but at this time I'd like to have a motion to go into executive sessions to talk about confidential legal and personel matter move by m seconded by Mr dancer all those in favor please signify by saying I I oppos obain motion carries thank you the out of executive session well in time for the board education CL a moment of silence thank you everybody please rise for cl I allegiance to the of the United States of America and stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all Mr Mr Mr McNeil here Mr L Mr Mr C here M reading the statement of notice a notice of this meeting puru to the open public meetings act has been given as follow ading an iner post on January 7th 2024 posting on school bulletin boards of management stores on January 5th 2024 filing written notice with the clerk of the Lan of Township on January 3rd 2024 and posting a notice on the District website www.o.com on 417 2024 this time I like a motion to approve the minutes of the March 20th 2024 regular meeting exhibit B moved by Mr dancer second second and by Mr s are there any questions or comments all those in favor please signify by saying I I oppose abstain motion carries community reps is there anybody from Riverside High School in attendance tonight seeing nobody we will move on to lco PTO Mrs S would you like a microphone I just figured I would use it for the S video louder is that lovely lady right there who will be hosting bag Bingo on May 3rd so please PTO is doing lots of good stuff so we want to update everybody on some of the things we've got going on uh mid-march we had our book fair um which I was very sadly not here for sorry I was in Florida on vacation um but it went very very smoothly from what I've been told previous Book Fairs on average5 to $6,000 we sold over $8,000 and the person that gives all of the credit for that that lady right there can you please stand up so much with this book fair I was with her every day in the fall I know I said it in the fall but she made sure every kid every teacher has books no questions asked and she just absolutely blew it out of the park and we could not do so thank you you for everything we really appreciate all of your help sticking with us um as I said bag Bingo May 3rd mineing noise over there um we are still accepting donations if you have an unused handbag R new the tag that you would like to donate if you would like to volunteer time or if you would like to join us tickets are 35 in advance 40 at the door we'll have some refreshments you can bring your own food it's going to be a good time we have some good stuff good prizes we have 50/50 we will have a raffle table as well going to be a good time is at Walnut um Friday 8 which is next we held a DIN and donate at crawfords we raised $416 from that so thank you everybody who came out and joined that was awesome for us um Denise has some updates on some grants that we got all right so um as of this past year uh we have been able to work at TCC which is a company I work for to get multiple grants to the district so so um we supplied a $10,000 check last year 3,400 in the fall and another 2500 now in the spr yeah absolutely so I work for uh TCC which is a Child Company oniz who our care companies um and basically one of our core values is giving back to our community so I've been able to work with them um with the school administration help to be able to get them some more grants we hope to be able to get continued funding um they're able to apply every quarter and each time we're able I'm on that board as well so I have a heavy hand in the voting process um but the money is to go directly back to the school and this time I believe this is being used for Chromebooks correct U this one's for Chromebooks from time for smart yes yep last time was smard this time from so great opportunity to help support the children thanks another lady we have to thank so much she is behind the scenes a lot but she does so much grants all of our books she just she's our unicorn and another person on this team that we could not do the PTO so so um we will be sponsoring the shirts for the 3K for Runners Club that is coming up June June June on a day that ends in so we will be sponsoring all the shirts for that um students in the room how are your field trips going who's been on a field trip so far hey the four of us came in with a goal in September and it was that every student goes on field trip has an assembly something we did it it's done every grade uh we're finalizing sixth and seventh grade but uh other than that everybody's done first grade went to keep the cat on Monday and 3K got to learn how to be a vet last week they um practiced bandaging on their teddy bears they each got their own little scrub hat um and we had some furry and non-furry friends come in guys that ginea pig wasid pot belly it took everything H me not take guy home he was so cute um finally uh the volunteers that have helped us we have had a couple people who really just have stood out above and beyond and the four of us can only do so much and without volunteers we can't do it Joanne will you please join us over here Joanne is so involved with so much we we have had events she has donated her time she did baskets for the auction she ran things for the auction she supervised the after school for age clubs which some of them would not have happened without her being there um she also has donated all of the soil for the 4H after school club and for Mrs welder's class so we just want to give you a huge shout out because you just go above and beyond for this school district and we want to make sure that you know how I just want to add Jo and school she also acely Evol as a volunteer at Del has no kids program she spent all day day working it out in the snackshot to help us out we even recruited Matt back to help us that day too um all he doing is hard effort so than appreci and she helped me B there on Monday that's it it's all for us P everybody I just want to personally thank you I know my son was on that P cat trip um and he was so excited about that and came home he's still talking about that um I know Joan my my son was working the snack stand my high school son graduate um was working the snack s with her um you know for they said this is just awesome to see that stuff coming back together uh dce of recreation Township committee uh K Patrick Township aison for dis Del RI and uh Recreation uh well as was just noted Del RI had their opening day Saturday and due the illness I was unable to make make the event which was the first time I how many years but anyway the spring events are definitely underway they have 100 in baseball 118 in baseball 100 in softball and 44 in t-ball and as they mentioned Joanne was there working the concession if anybody here can volunteer for Del rib for the concession stands they are definitely in need of that so keep that in mind uh and also check out their Weekly Newsletter it's really great what saber is doing with Del RI because they have a coach of the week she keeps everybody up to date with what's happening and um it's just a great organization and they are also offering a CPR class on May 11th at Town Hall it's $100 a person 8:00 in the morning so um re um as everybody should know the Memorial Day parade is May 26 and this year we are starting at West Avenue instead of Larchmont there's more room for people to um gather and also it' be nice to start the parade at the other end of town it's not that much longer so um I hope everybody participates thank you and I know Mr Templeton is our Comm on for Township committee Mr Templeton do you have anything com no thank you Mr Templeton I'm going to move my welcome and visitors uh president's message to after student recognition and the break before public comment on agenda item so at this time I'd like to turn everything over to Dr and administration to honor students who we attendance thank you thank you Mr President well the principal come for now and let's give recognition to our students this is Mr Elijah he's my preschool friend all right Mr Elijah loves a his favorite color is blue animals are dogs he wants to be a police officer when he grows up and his birthday is January 8 and he's also got his vet vet and Training Guy Olivia she okay so you like app uh your favorite color is pink your favorite animal is a giraffe you want to be a nurse and your birthday is November 2nd okay would you do me a favor would you hold this like this okay just okay can you get it good with smile SM Grayson favorite food is cookies and cake your favorite colors are green and red your favorite animal is a dinosaur uh you want to be a marine just like that right all right and you like oser trucks and your birthday's January 10th can I get everything okay Chloe all right ch's got a beautiful smile favor food is cookies color is blue animal is cats she wants to be a superhero when she grows up April 19 Petro okay Petro's favorite food is Apples color is blue favorite animal is monkeys she wants to be a doctor June 21st all right Penny okay all right Rob can come up and accept I don't know uh you got to get a picture but that's okay food is I'm pen all right color is pink karoo she wants to be a doctor and the birthday is March 25th let Barry get a picture smile Ran's favorite food it's McDonald's color blue animal line he wants to be in the army birthday is the 14th of June Mia all right Mia likes cheese pizza favorite color's pink animals are puppies and unicorns birthday's the 18th of June she wants to be an em like M oh all right the best Dron here's another guy with a smile smile he enjoys Pizza his color is blue he loves dogs birthday's November 6th and he wants to be a YouTuber Maria get get go get it okay Maria X hamburgers colors F animal dog wants to be a nurse the 16th of July is her birthday he likes Burger favorite color is black he likes K Corso birthday is the 20th of August he wants to be a police officer R up right there we go you like noodles favorite color is light green your favorite animal is a cheetah September 11th and you want to be an NBA Jessica Jessica like hot dog color pink you like cats April 18th yeah all right happy birthday to later and the B right all right hold this down a little no no not FR your face right there okay good all right a no okay favorite food Raymond color pink lik dogs January 21st she would like to be veterinarian Katie catala is it catala Bart yeah she on her wife she's running late all right uh well I'll acknowledge her anyway here okaye all right good put her at the end all right put her at the end if she's coming let Barry go let's see if she's here at the end all right we're so happy to talk about our student Spotlight up for this month this student and all these accolades were written by students students so this student is an honest student who has a clear understanding of right and wrong he's very consistent he knows the routine will follow through by doing his very best been a lot of growth in making positive decisions that others can see and follow he does these things quietly he's exactly what all students should see is doing the very best in displaying the one stre weight characteristics of being trustworthy he's also taught me a ton about PSI so I can talk to my sixth grade about it come on up Mr Caleb Johnson this student went from one softball game to another softball game so I don't think she was able to make it but we're going to talk about her anyway this student was recognized as a student of the month for trustworthiness she's reliable honest and consistent fulfilling her commitments and upholding high moral standards her dedication to truth and fairness sets a positive example for her peers and contributes to a respectful learning environment she can be relied upon to always keep her word she's always willing to help her do what she can for others we want her to keep up the good work that's Melania Manzano award on behalf of our softball player is Miss Tina salsburg picture no I'm teacher that recommended her this nor me back here all right this seventh grade student is one that can be trusted consistently she helps keep track of who in The Home Room has filled out the lunch for and make sure that the Slackers tell us what they want to eat and how they're getting home I'm telling you bu students for all right we can trust her that when she asked to do something cuz we know she'll only do what she asked to do will not take advantage of any situation she owns her conduct and personal property she models trustworthiness for her PE through her her access and her accountability and I heard her mom wants to come up with her this is Riley delin a lot this student's trustworthy nature is evident in many of her actions in class she does her very best to consistently maintain integrity and honesty she be counted on to stay on task and Prides herself in following the war Street way she's able to recogniz and accept respons posibility for her actions and most importantly learn and grow from her experiences she's a kind compassionate and reliable member of our school Community it's a pleasure to spotlighter for her trustworthiness Miss Amy Morales now I know the only two eighth graders were not able to make it this student is actually an 8th grade volunteer firefighter in Riverside yes that's what I say I I wish I could have done that this student's responsible accountable and resourceful maintains consistency in what he says he does he's very dependable in the classroom and Trust to always do the right thing he's honest even the outcome is not his favorite he tells the truth and his loyal PE he's reliable and great example stent who follows Long Street way let's clap for Austin and last but not least this student could not make it tonight we honored him quite a bit this year both for his appearance at school boards and us to sit on the podium and really speak and talk about what W has done for him and what he's been able to do back to us he also presented with us about the lot of people new years's experience he's just a fantastic student and he is on top of that he's reliable dependable displays a great work work ethic he calls to commitment when he says he'll do something we know that he's going to deliver he always strives to do what is right serves as a great example of the one street way here to accept Caleb Mor's award is his safety patrol oh down Katie come on down okay Katie you like pizza right favorite color is blue favorite animal is C your birthday is the 23rd and you want to be a gen is that right congratulations by want this about everybody that got anward for a student at a month to come up so we could take a group photo and after that is done i' like to invite the PTO ladies to take a photo do fits in the check as well uh we're going to do a 3 5 minute recess for that um here obviously what welome to say for the presentations that are happening uh at today's meeting after the break uh so we have a brief recet for those pictures and for anybody that wants to leave it is 7:27 I plan to start the meeting again at 7:32 wow all right 7:32 and the meeting is back in session at this time I moved my uh president statement to now which is before public comment on agenda it good evening parents residents staff and board members tonight we have some very important discussion items and sub votes in our agenda I've only been with President since 2013 and I know that 11 years is not as long as many people in this audience or even on this board I've been in the educational fewi since 2005 which is 19 years I spent 10 ofs as a teacher and Coach five as an assistant principal and athletic director and now four years as a director of technology and curriculum I ran for this board in 2020 and again in 20121 because I kept hearing about the finances in the district and how they were in dire streets I heard prate RS and prior administrators even publicly state that they were exploring the possibility of becoming non operating or evening with a another District I because I heard about continuous budget cuts prior reductions in force cuts to code for and athletic programs and cuts the funding for even the bare classroom Essentials most of all I R because I believe in small town America I wanted to be bold I wanted to have people do a deep dive into the reasons for this and see if the lro schools could be saved in short like everybody else sitting at this table I ran or in some cases for some people sitting at this table apply or appointment to make a difference ironically as a board member sometimes you don't have to in many people think that you have your Ro is a policymaking body to hire an evaluated Chief School administrator and a set for them when we hire Dr Fitz is a board we than for the in superintendent interview process after Mr meringer submitted his resignation in August and we got Dr prince in here by October we made it clear to all applicants that we interview that our vision was that we wanted someone to come in to do that deep dive and to make any necessary changes to the status quo to ensure that the r Township Schools can be successful not just for this generation but for generations to come it's rare that as board members that we actually have the chance to truly make decisions that can save a school district we made one of those decisions in the hiring of Dr Fitz and his recommendation for the NB Le tonight is another one of those chances I know I spoke with most all of you individually yesterday regarding this but the seriousness of this matter cannot be stressed enough there are many opinions out there in the public on social media and in this room right now unfortunately as board members we cannot just respond with the facts of the situation that we're presented with online or in personal conversation due to restrictions that are placed on us because of our position but at this meeting we can present them and We Are Tonight here are the facts and I cannot be clear enough tonight's vote is not just a vote on the merger of the two schools it is not just a vote on a budget for the 2425 school year tonight's vote is to determine whether or not the ranco Township Schools even exist as you know them today tonight's vote is to save the lanco Township's schools we never been able to survive another year operating two buildings if the state did not call our funding by 16% a difference of just short $440,000 just a month or so ago we could have done a yearlong campaign and raise public awareness that as I said just a few months ago the state Delta us this hand and now we have to play it if you do not pass this murder for two schools tonight the School District 20 will have a better of of $212,000 in deficit to the budget to operate two buildings this would County Superintendent coming in and shutting down the district due to submitting an unbalanced budget submitting an unbalanced budget is against the law if we do that all jobs would be lost every single job students will be placed in other districts at the sole discretion of the county super intended taxpayers would have no say friends could be split up families could be split up taxpayers would have no say if we pass the school merger and budget we present a balanced budget that will be presented with no cuts to the instructional state potential R we come will even put us back in the black for the first time in years and could potentially be used to reinvent our special education structure it has openly cost us so much over the past decade or could be used toward activities supplies classroom materials or even more again tonight's vote is not just a v tonight's vot is a vote to potentially save the Lano Township Schools there are many comments including many of were submitted online from the previous meeting and now I'm positive that many of those questions will be answered in the presentations the administration will give shortly it is well that members of the public are afforded the ability to speak on agenda items though before they are presented I'm going to give that option I know some people are in attendance tonight who also submitted items on that online form I'm going to give them the option to say it publicly or I will read it from them one of the two we will also do a brief comment session after the merer and Buzz presentations before a brief executive session before coming out to that subsequent vote at this time uh attorney should be all right all right um um so according to board policy 0167 we're going to limit public comment to five minutes just given the sheer number of people that are here 5 minutes each 5 minutes each correct thank you for that um just given the number of people that are here in the comments that we anticipated I'm going to be keeping time on that uh I won't cut you off at you know your sentence but we want to make sure that we're able to move along through in orderly fashion uh with that we to open yes at this time we will open meeting up for public comment on agenda items only when you are called on you will stand up you will say your name your address and you will uh make your statement um I do have the list of the online statements that were submitted not just before this meeting but before the uh the meeting that was uh cancelled before on the 11th so like to open it up for members of the public that are here first before I go to the online form ma'am uh yes car 15 Delaware Avenue um are you saying that you want public comment before you even make the presentation it's noral that I have public comment on agenda items before the agenda items are presented which is why I'm also giving the opportunity for public comment after the presentations so if you would like to hold until after you can do so great thank you thank you this Plum Katherine Plum 224 Maple Avenue uh is this is such a dire need tonight why was that not shared with the community all these months I myself have been here and I keep asking what's going on the talks are happening the talks are happening and now we're being told that the count is coming in why was that that information not shared before tonight your your message fine thank you but why can't we know that before tonight there are plenty of parents that are home there are community members in this town that have no idea of what you just shared and that vote is happening tonight remember that that this message was being shoveled under the carpet and kept from the community so that it will be passed I'm not saying that I'm for it or against it but let us know what is happening we didn't know about that April 9th meeting why why was that not publicly shared why have these meetings not been sent out on blackboard to remind the community why isn't it being included on Township messages as well let us know about them every single month we're all busy you heard students are going from one baseball game to another parents are busy it slips your mind that there's going to be a board meeting what week is that remind us how many messages have I gotten about njsla testing at least two have I gotten one about the tonight yet no tell the parents what's happening in advance not in the moment sponsor I am going ah have uh you know give a directive to make sure that all board meetings are put out on black board on that point right um everything obviously has been discussed in the past but um I think during the presentation I will address and Dr Fitz can address the reasoning for the timing right the April 11th meeting again I contacted administrated and canel that because it was the right thing to do like I stated um and a statement online to do this with the public okay that's why I'm here right before you to tell you that okay um when it comes down to the timeing with the county superintendent Dr Fitz will go into that during the presentation 222 conversations with the county superintendent already to express your concern the actions that might be taken and is there an appeal process for the district if the county says no thank you for the question we've had communication with the county superintendent upon my arrival here in November and the charge that was given to me I visited with the county superintendent and told him what the board was requesting me to look at and to give some strong considerations to the first thing I asked him do we have the capacity to accommodate the children in one building he responded he said you have the capacity to handle the children adequately and appropriately in one building and from that point we set out because that was the kind of ND to say space is available and so now we start working as a design group as a design team to see how we could accommodate the population in this facility with all the services that would be needed for but for children we tried to keep this conversation as moderate as possible on our board agendas you can see items when we were telling you we were saying we we we're discussing this we're working on on on this project okay but we have not released anything in full deta deta until the board had the opportunity to hear it to see it and to feel it and then they can give us the go ahead and say now it's ready to go publicly so yes we work Relentless quietly on the project until we got it into the shape in the form that we could share with the board and they could give us the N now we you can release it can I have follow to that um so the county superintendent determined that you have the space to accommodate the students they come out and do an assessment or how's that well they have several they do it in several ways they have a complete drawing of your four floor plan here your architectural plan the measure that was approved years years ago they have representative that walk through to see the space uh to see where children will be and where they where they go so they have they have that data all the way through up through the State Department of Education in Trenton okay and when did that happen that probably happens back in November December I it was soon after Ive and then my last question I if the board should decide know we want to try and keep all that street open is there an appeal process or the decision already made in fining saying if you submit a deficit budget you must close let me just a decision if we submit a deficit budget the decision to close us down is made at that moment if I turn in a deficit budget we'll CL just about waiting to hear from them they've already told me you can't present I cannot present a deficit budget and what's the time period for that closure to ur I believe we have until sometime in May to to make sure that that budget is prop proper you subm a deficit and they say you must close they need to give you time okay that might sound very reasonable okay you don't know how this state will operate I've been in it for a long time and sometime it's almost like they decide when they want to put the padlock on okay once they tell you closure it's better for you to start that process okay you can set the appeal if you got to start laying off staff dispersing staff deciding when you send the kids what schools they going to go to make an arrangement for transportation it is so much involved it's unbelievable it's not something you really want to go get involved why see I'm sorry this I do see that you submitted an online comment can I Mark that done I'll mark I'll mark that online comment it's done ran you over the timeline the was submitted when us I think that kind of might help with Miss Plum's answer like I want to respect and hear what she saids I kind of want the township to understand I I think I've heard you Mr um this talk did not come up in September didn't come up in August what happened was we have all this time to work on a budget then to the state actually to the county we have to go in the county to review we have to submit a budget by January that review takes upwards of about a month and then you get a final notice in February saying your budget is out of terms so we did not know that you know what that building merger has to take a lot more substance until late February and I did want to tell you that we've done two or three onsite visits just to hear what administration's plans were we said we don't like this plan let's go back to the drawing board let's to make uh you know outweigh our pros and cons so to the point where we finally got to a March 28th right before break review of like the lay of the L so in order for that with during break we then have to put together a presentation kind of finalize it and that's what it brought us here today I apologize for the board if the commitment to communication for an invite here but as far as like trying to sneak anything in that was nothing that was on our part but some people I think need to know the timeline of when the when the actual determination comes to approve a budget happens in February at the end of February so we do not have that much time to work and to further elaborate on that before we go to the next person the meeting with the county and superintended that happened with Dr Fitz that I said that he would talk about later that he said he would shut us down if we submitted and unbalanced budget this point that was yesterday and as I said before we can't just say this stuff online it has to be in a forum like this and I knew that having that meeting on the 11th was not the right P I saw your hand I apologize eleth so after this vote today and whether it goes with combining or um cling down when would that affect the students are they going to be able to finish this school year and yes they all happen during the summer yes yes and yes um I saw that you also submitted an online comment would you like me to mark that as done as well okay I want to make sure I stay on top of that so thank you for for working with me on that he had his hand up first year I'm sorryy um if I ask my question IDE um our kids in this whole country are val we had and the most important thing that we give them is good education I know you guys are try to do that um that being said I understand where you're going with all this I'm getting a picture and I'm new to this this but we're getting a picture you know I have a really tough question to figure out how in order to know that how to fix something you got to know what happened great what happened to cuse this I me if you go to certain towns in this in the South Jersey area alone there are prominent towns that have all kinds of money to do things and then I see other towns struggling okay not just you and like for example my wife works for another town as a teacher the teacher quit there I went to a more prominent Town got a job immediately and also got a $16,000 year race because it was a permanent Town my question is what happened in the past that for this to happen was it just a state was it B spending on our part do we need to raise taxes I don't I'm asking you I don't know right number one I thank you for your time number two that's a very large r to go down in a response time as well what I refuse to do professionally at this point knowing that myself and Rob as third year board members right now are most senior people up here I am not going to go and say point fingers and say it was this Administration it was this board it was this the fact that matter is every board can only act on the information that they're given and they have to trust that all information is accurate is correct is going to that Vision um I'm not going to publicly demean I'm not going to publicly point fingers at anybody in the past our jobs here not to fix the past we can't fix it when we can menend the future and I I believe this is step one in that Dr Fitz is there something you want to add at that point let me just add a piece of History every time Dave you got a different I can't get when I get in when I get in difficult situation I go and look back at history to help guide me so I found a great document about the Lano and about the lanco schools you this school district is about 168 years old around 18 I believe 1856 I just imagine that a group of parents very much like you were struggling with the concept of what to do for their children they were faced with a difficulty but they decided to build a one room School the population in the town continued to grow they built a second room they added a second room to that school and later they added a third room to that school and finally they built a complete school I won't go through the entire history but every generation will come to an intersection and you Adam intersection and that intersection is say what do we do in the best interest for our children generations of before you came to intersection and they responded remarkably read the history for the children of delinko the children of delinko once were part of uh what is it the the school district over here no it's it's another school willberg and they didn't even have trans expectation for those kids they walk from Del Co to willing girl okay they were determined kids but those parents and citizens decided to say we can do something locally for our church tonight we have that intersection to do the best watch ver I know you had your hand raised next and you're in front of me so I don't really need the microphone to get you up so here please add you know name address best interests of our children are to have green space so I hope my comment is I hope wut Street field the field where um people at wut Street School the students they have Recreation and kids in the town for younger two young to ride all the way tot down to another car I hope that field stays in the Board of Education hands and it's not sold and my other comment that what is best for the children and the community is to have the town library so I'm wondering did the county superintendent look at the library space and classroom space number one the county superintendent all that is Library space and that would not change so let me put that the rest right here and right now especially with many of those people that serve on the library board and the township committee here in attendance tonight number two regarding the fields the fields are zoned as recreational the current plan would be to if this is uh passed and this will be gone over by Administration and the plan is that we would rent that building if a school district comes and once to rent that field as well with the upkeep that would be part of that that it has to stay as a field we are not looking to sell that at this point in time we want to keep that as a field if let's just say doctor's offices or something like that decide they want to come in we might as well keep that people and use it and upkeep it so there is no plan at this time to get rid of that uh that field behind Walmart Street School thank you sir you raise your hand thank you uh Peter Brit 303 Union Avenue History Richard witon who was the farmer that own property here um this was a plan community and he laid out the entire town took to New Jersey assembly legislature and he got a charter to build what he initially called Del which and I have original maps that were created by Him for his layout of the town the streets were laid out and they were built out the way that he planned with very few exceptions and if you know on the that early those early Ms that that square between Union Avenue and Street and ches was designated as a town three to be perpetually left this open space for the town now when the school was built I think 1924 Mor Street School only two buildings that property right school and there was a community um Civic Center it was like an auditorium they used to do operatics and us that the only two buildings were on that on that spot um when when B Street School was built believe about 1924 uh they apparently took over that property and the property went in hands of the township I'm sorry school school district owned that property uh which was fine because it was still open space it was still available to the town and you kept it that way so my concern was if the school GL Street school is closed I don't want people to forget that that was supposed to be our town green and it should remain eventually open for use by the town as space thank you thank you for your comment sir m' hi yes Carol 105 Del actually here do you mind if I Mark you was done as well now for that comment had another comment cuz those were your two comments actually that you did put on about theg of the districts I'll wait for later that's fine so I'll just mark this as done and say and know that you will speak later yes I apologize ma' not a problem um I think my concern here tonight is the urgency and you've expressed that urgency it's a Do or Die situation today which means that the public comments I don't think are going to taken into account at all because everybody has to vote tonight they don't have time to think about it or understand the public comments or follow up with any suggestions that they mo so I'm just trying to get from my perspective because I think transparency is really important for the board and I'm hearing now that there was the County assessment back in November about whether what uh what Pearson could house for all students right and so that happened then I'm hearing that the budget is submitted or by February end to February um and I'm trying to and at that time did you not know that there would be a deficit or was there not a deficit with budg to to answer some of those questions right um one you submit a preliminary budget early it was March it was in March in march2 we knew very close to them that there was going to be a $400,000 somehow of cut at that point close to $440,000 what you're talking about as far as like County assessments as far as everything goes can this be done everything like that the initial plan for us was we were under the impression earlier that this wasn't as much of a Do or Die thing and we could do this for another year with two buildings and we could fully plan this out as I stated in my in my opening statement that we would have the time to do a full public relations thing get the community on board really bring this to the light that's why it was discussed at other meetings that's why we brought it up at other meetings um as they go deeper into the budget and really started grinding everything out the need for this presented itself over the last month for us to do that and if we were to keep those buildings open $212,000 doesn't include the electric utilities things like that right so you're looking at cutting at a bare minimum let's just say say $250,000 worth of you can't do it in supplies you can't do it in everything you would have to do it in more jobs well what about the ACT that's pending right now you can't budg it based on pending acts okay let me just finish St okay there's an act right now moving through the legislature to restore Cuts right to the school districts that got cut I'm sure your council is keeping on top of it I you all are keeping on top of it so I I I understand you can you hope that something will happen but it's pretty strong indication that some of those cuts are going to be restored if you got deep into that a 2025 but you also just said that you didn't find out till yesterday you couldn't super a deficit budget that's been the law since I don't know what 30 years saying that's something you should have known and I'm sure your Council would have told you so that's not something you just learned yesterday or on the 11th in that C the urgy that's been the law forever that you can't submit a deficit project so I'm just trying to understand why you're not giving the presentation giving all the reasons allowing the citizens and the parents to consider all the factors and get behind this or come up with some other suggestions instead presented as a do or die tonight with a threat to the other board m members that if you don't do this we're going to have to close both schools I don't I don't really understand this process why it was it's being under this let me just share with you my arrival here in November I think that's when I got I am really a superintendent of schools but I'm more a financial person and I can look at finances very clearly you were financially hemorrhaging and when you're financially hemorrhaging you are losing money so fast that the word was out on the street that teachers were concerned that they would not be able to get P I took a deep I took a deep dive immediately okay to say let's find out where this eny is is coming from we discovered multiple sources that when we were H I said to the board we must address this immediately with the best strategies and techniques that's available to us we retain our attorney said these contracts must be terminated we had to stop that hemorage while at the same time provide the services for our children so we provide the services for our children through new vendors but we had to slow down this Hy slow down we we were going to die earlier my mind of Finance is so thin I literally have to look at it every day to say how are we doing is there any waste I can capture I've got to capture waste so that I can stay active it will take me approximately 3 years to build back some Surplus I have exhausted your Surplus is is exhausted okay I don't have any money anywhere to to back building these deficit I don't have it and at the same time I'm trying not to lay off stand so it's a balancing act every day in here every day but we move is slow yes but we got to keep going the county superintendent is telling me you got to do this and if you don't this is going to happen I don't have any choices and all I'm doing is working on plans working on strategies to live another school and the plan that's where we are it's not over yeah I got it'll take me 3 years before we will have some sub aren't you lied to two years what mean aren't you limited to two years he's limited to two okay he's limited to two that doesn't mean that a strategic plan can't be developed no I'm not saying that but he just said he has 3 years to do something he's by law to two years that's right and we're already one year into it so that's all I'm doing is building a model that's all I'm doing building a model on a plan I hope that the next person will keep it going keep it going okay and what's the um income going to be from the analysis was there any analysis done of Walnut Street School what income would be generated once it closed for rental we uh we we we're working with what I call commercial contractors we missing attentively to other persons who might have uh in the M of school like some of the private special education uh uh programs they might want to rent and put a unit over here in in this area you know to serve the population of is is that the school board's decision on what happens the property if it's not going to be used as a school uh that's that's totally a school board the school Bo would make that decision whatever we discover we have to bring it to D well could the school board decide sell it to a developer I can't answer that question we're not we're not at this time entertaining s we're not at especially with that that have to be your Council does the school board have the authority under statutes to sell property to someone who's not going to use it as a school I don't started with the township ordinances I have to look into that Township ordinance I think generally yes but I would have to look at the specifics of the L see if there were any restricted covering specifically that would restrict sale that building here um however as uh the board has said we're not going to get into those sorts of discussions about what the plan is this evening I saw Miss Harper's hand go oh no no no I was I apologize I was saying five minutes I apologize um I do see M fick's hand up 225 cus Avenue um I just hear about deficit deficit deficit what is the deficit will we be uh informed as to what the deficit is how much this is is there another way to um to make it up um so we're making these decisions but I haven't heard what the is that to me you know working with the township budget you know that I've done for many years being on the township committee and we are very transparent with everything we do as well I'd love to know what what is the deficit that would close both of these schools you put you mean they would close both of these schools talking about both of these School we're not looking to close those we looking to save the land ofo if we didn't pass the m at a bare minimum I'm being told that there is a at a bare minimum of $250,000 of a deficit in next year's budget that the only place to take that from would be St 250,000 okay because so for 250,000 we're going to do away with the school that the children have enjoy performing have a stage uh graduation I mean you know I went through Theo school system I graduated at w stre I went and I understand that this must be a very difficult decision for you but it's very difficult for me to understand how we cannot manage and make a budget to work keep because I think the students enjoy moving to a middle school having that um prese of being an upper classman and having different activities there that are not available here so I just wonder and I'm I'm sure you've done your homework but I feel like there must be something else something else that can be done to bring that 250,000 in this year and then maybe next year some money will be coming back I know that have to legislator what they did to delango and to many schools is unfortunate it was it's like a crime but to Me closing that school is it's just a scary thought being on the township committee right now dealing with affordable housing issues that are going to be coming up they they passed it we don't know what it is we don't know what our numbers are I mean who's to say that somebody couldn't purchase that and put affordable housing in there I don't know you know I'm just worried about it and I just want to sure you not make decision like that obviously quickly we would not made it make it um without significant thought meetings open public thoughts feedback um Kate you've been around long enough also to know that back in the N late 990s or early 2000s I I had a conversation with a uh with a Delano resident that's been around for a long time not too long ago and and that person reminded me that this building when the Board of Education offices were built and that extension was built the idea at that time how it was pushed was that this would be a k to8 building and that the township would actually go into the walut street school there there's there's documentations and emails for that but we we can AR that on there and it took three referendums to get it done and that was not part of the referendum that I for the library to be put here and but to doing that school it wasn't in the campaign I work with I I can tell you that again we have them in the future we have in the future ran I know you wanted to respond um I like the idea um to sit down a little bit more with our Township to talk about that tricky word of an algorithm where I know the township you have your own algorithm the uh school district has a second algorithm and in some way the state wants us to run parallel but they don't necessarily communicate with one another and I just know this from a district that I work in they threw one number off they Incorporated a golf course that threw our algorithm off by $30 million that caused a $1.3 million C we then brought it up to legislation and it was corrected I just would love to have that idea to talk to our Council representatives and see what does that algorithm look like so we know what we're also getting into from a toship level because like you said affordable housing comes in how does that affect the tax Township's algorithm to the supports needed here I know most recently there was an apartment complex that or a housing right off of the River Line how does that affordable housing affect us when we have to we're being charged 13,000 $14,000 to um educate these students I I don't know what does the impact of a Deton Waton Warehouse what was the impact of two empty warehouses what's the impact of an over 55 Community when it comes to the Township's algorithm and how that would affect our school algorithm I think that's something where as a educated board we're trying to figure out like we want to be educated and have a better understanding of that from your expertise again I can't speak for the bill Jenkins Board of Ed from nine years ago and I can't speak to Carolyn because Carolyn's been on the board for two or three years so this is something love to know what what was the conversation eight or nine years ago when there was other development that could have affected where we're at 10 years later and I think that's a conversation we also need to have as well by the way I thank the township for being open to these conversations and meetings with us I believe that bridge is starting to be built again um and I do openly thank the township for that um Mr Patrick I did Mark your comment pretty online thing is done as well but obviously will will'll Circle back if me I see a hand in the back with striped a red striped shirt but I cannot see a face I Linda y uh 600 Perkins Lane um I'm a great grandma I know that you have a preschool program here that we didn't have that would give you additional classrooms I'm sure but I'm worried about preschool to eighth graders being in the same school I I also want to know and I don't know if you can answer it or not but if there was such a deficit and there has been such a deficit why wasn't the tax rate increased for for each household if each household of our 4,000 people in this town or more gave you $1,000 your deficit would be gone that is very true but again we cannot raise the tax T more than 2% by law I can't speak the previous Boards of education but the past two and I've only con seeded on two they raised it the maximum cap again I cannot speak to previous Boards of education and I am not going to point fingers toward previous Boards of Education I can't answer for them your other question about the uh the intermingling of students will be answered during the presentation so I will kind of respectfully ask you to uh to kind of view a presentation that Bob and Barry uh will present about the merger and I believe that will answer your question also you mentioned just prior the Board of Ed building was included in this whole expansion years ago is that Bo of EDG building considered part of your educational uh area now if we close Walnut School no it's not why not it doesn't need to be you'll see that on on what's being presented and what is the student number going to be per class that we they can go into that when once we do a presentation and also so why are we at the bottom 10% of the new of the New Jersey state in this District outrageous we're paying high taxes well that's what we're also trying to fix but I'm also going to combat that a little bit by saying that this staff is excellent my daughter is graduating as valorian Riverside High School this year and has multiple scholarship offers in part due to the foundation that was set by Tano Township Public School staff my son who's a junior at a different school is top 10 and on the same path these are just two success stories of many Delano students that come in test scores might be one little picture that you see but it is not the full picture of the whole student I had a grandson that was at my house during Co doing work on the computer and I watched what he was learning he was not learning he still is not learning at the level he should be when he's excellent in one thing he's not encouraged to keep it at that level where he's having deficits I don't think he's getting the assistance that he needs also in in those cases I would say pleas your observation is accurate we have a disconnect and our educational program for our youngsters here we're trying to rebuild that gradually and systematically you can see that we are now trying to get a curriculum person in here to develop connectivity and continuity of instruction first grade connects with second grade second grade connects with third grade the list goes on and on and on okay so we got to have connectivity here we've got to have an adoped curriculum that we all subscribe to the lead in and will work Unlimited in that so we're taking those steps when we first acknowledge that we are not at all satisfied with with the level of performance of our students so I acknowledge that that we're working on it addressing it and we will make improvements by the time you make improvements my grandson's out of here I've complained we have many other students in the district to continue make I'm sorry I'm more worried about him I I have that right to be worried about him and everyone here has the right to be worried about their kid we acknowledge that we we will we can do better and we will work I personally asked about a preschool program when my grandson was three to a previous administrator now because you are here for one more year the principal is out this year we're going to be in flux for years to come I don't think you may have a great plan for us but I don't think that great plan may follow through because there's no one to follow through I think that's an assumption that's yet to be kind of proven at that point but I respect your opinion and I respect your your comment so I thank you for your comment um I'm going to call on a couple other people that say they raise their hands but soon I do want to move on to those presentations if you don't mind and also kind of move those comments to the end of those presentations as you can see some of these answers will be presented in those presentations ma'am I do see your Hannah I do want cont Carson 604 spru Street um sorry what was your name again I need that de Deb Carson n 604 sprw street thank you been here about 20 some years home owner great little town not so much on the system of Education my opion and experience how we got to this point I'm still not sure with this deficit but I want to ask the board what have you done outside of maybe your nor or whatever it is have you reached out to companies for Grants have you done anything like that we just hired a gr writer there's something on the agenda tonight to accept one Grant which is a start to that we just accepted grants from TCC Verizon with Denise uh before so that was part of this board's idea to try to fix some of that deficit that you do speak about um we pass a separate proposal two years ago to put that grant writer in Dr Fitz and our wom did find that grant writer put them in and they are actively working toward some of that and actually writing grants now so is the Outlook good because I hear you saying we have to make this vote tonight but if we've got the possibility of that money coming in other options but just like the possibility of more State funding you can't budg it on possibility you have to Budget on fact and the fact is the math wasn't mact thank you for RSE decision say you vote on this to close the school and everything and then all of a sudden you get a how does that happen as far as as far as I know then Dr F can present that op well I'll turn that over to Dr f mides I'm okay so today we're going to vote we're going to close the school it's a done deal to Clos tomorrow you open your mail and you get $250 that would be nice so then you can say h never mind I'm not going to close this can you do that we're not we're not losing the school we have not committed to any uh we have not committed to any long-term oneyear side contracts but I also want to bring up this building was built to hold 480 students we're currently at 368 our job here is to be fiscally responsible young lady in the back said she does not like the education process God bless you we need to put funds towards the education process which means we need to get a curriculum right which means we need to develop curriculum which at every great level cost approximately $20,000 you have eight grade levels that's $160,000 I'd rather make the investment in the education process for us in the education process currently right now then keeping yes I understand that I have a I have a middle school kid over there okay I get it too yes graduate thank you but it's what we're hearing is I I'm an educator I don't know if all of you know that Eric's an educator I got a lot of people here that are very Pro how are we fixing the one issue well one of the issues is we're sending our kids to Riverside and we're saying okay we have some ises like Eric's child doing a great job awesome my kid doing an awesome job I can't say that's everything I can see the data is the bottom 10% all I can tell you is most recent scores we starting to see a climb but are we seeing looping no are we seeing a warm handoff in first grade second grade third grade that shows progression on State Standards no so we have to do a better job with creating the curriculum that curriculum also has to run parallel to our sending District in this case it's Riverside okay we have to run parallel to even the school that we're being compared to Lake Beverly and the growth that there do so one of the reasons we've hired Dr Fritz was because of his experience in building a foundation and building right now we have a cripping our foundation is on Sand okay and I hate to say it's going to get worse this is worse right now compared to where we were last year we are slowly finally building a foundation out of center block where we can then build off of it okay bar save Mr pup and put a lot of effort into most recent recently what's the reading program you just implemented down on and hmh K2 K2 yes what is that H Mifflin so now we're using actual concrete cuton Mifflin that has data to support it okay I can tell you about math culum uh 10 years ago discreet math go about everyday math and then you're like wait your scores went backwards well half of the district or half of the school scores went backwards because they picked the wrong shiny box of everyday maap so they went back to Pearson map or they went back to uh Mark straford map these are things that we need to consider I know it's throughout the ntion throughout the nation H mithin all I've heard from three teachers is how awesome that they're finally getting trained on it they're finally seeing a you know we started it and we're seeing it all the way go through fruition to the end okay and now all I can say is those State standardized testing from my understanding it's only been impl for 2 months now so we're we already seeing Lexile scores go up by grade level we're getting concrete data I can't say that that's the same conversation we had five or six years ago but that's an investment that's a pum break for somebody that's going to oversee it that's going to develop it that's an expense of like approximately 152000 per grade so yes it means at this point pulling a HS on Walnut to look at a vision that Dr Fritz has had and you're right he's done after a year whoever takes that seat has to pick up that plan that's why we have a board we're creating a strategic action plan which goes over 3 to 5 years those things are going in place they weren't here so in the last 6 months I think we've done a lot of damage not damage a damage in a good way we made a lot of positive okay we're being a lot more organized and we're planning for the future and this is one of the bumps we're going to have I'd much rather have this bump closing that than telling 10 of my teachers back there you got to find another job I'd rather do that and it's a tough decision and not one of us said cool we can't look can't wait to close down Walnut not one of us said that okay but we don't want to lose 10 teachers we're 12 teachers we want to keep our staff and we want to build up the infrastructure of Education and that's where we're at I want to just briefly pick up on what Ryan was saying I I saw some um discussion and commentary online about you know oh you know citizens don't necessarily know who we are as individuals and who the members of the board are I can always speak for myself hello good evening my name is Michael mcneel I have lived in Delano since 2015 when my wife and I bought a house um we started a family here my daughter Lucy uh is turning five next month and she's going to we actually just registered her for kindergarten she's going to be starting in the fall every decision I made as a member of this board is with an eye towards ensuring that Lucy gets the best education possible every member of this board we have grandmothers on this board we have parents we have other fathers we have mothers on this board they all have children in this District we all have a vested interest in this District we are all members of the community we we're no different than than you we have all of the same questions as you we have all of the same concerns as you um and we're just doing the best we can with the hand that we were dealt and I think it's pretty clear tonight that we were dealt a really lousy hand I I um I uh applied in the summer in August to fill a vacancy on this board you know uh I came in I wanted to volunteer I wanted to do my part I'm I'm trying to do the best I can I I wish we could just pull out a magic wand fix everything you know I wish we could just the deficit I wish we could improve the test course but you know we can't just wave the want what we have to do instead is take compete steps like hiring and bringing on Dr Fitz working with our existing Administration to come up with the best plan possible to um to fix the problem we can't do it overnight I really wish we could I really wish we could because I don't want in a perfect world I Lucy would be coming into a school that's in you know the bot 10% in state whatever the numbers say but we just have to do the best we can we are and I'm assure you no decision up here is made lightly we're not ramming anything through in the dark of the night you know there's nothing Sinister going on we're just doing the best we can with the information we have and uh everything we do is for the benefit of not only our children but for your children and I I just I just ask you please work with us trust us that we're doing our best thank you I did see um Carolyn did you have your hand up before okay here do you want to talk now wait actually um you did have a comment so I do want to go too hi 621 Delaware I am an educator I'm also a longtime volunteer in town and my understanding is that you your C if you take your budget to a vote um is that not correct anyone I thought that if you would seated your C that you could that you would have like Old School uh the public comes out and votes for the budget is that not I asked the county superintendent if I can have a second question for November okay about putting the 207,000 back into the budget and he said it's defent no but so there is no such thing in New Jersey at all as a school budget vote at all right my understanding was that if if there if you needed to exceed your cap and clearly you do and you are you want the body in the community and we're all here there are many people in this room who don't have kids because we care about the kids we're here but if you need more money if you're able to exceed the cap by going out to the public for a school board vote maybe that's a suggestion put Walnut off the table or on the table doesn't matter if you need that money if that's available to consideration there there's only certain items that you can go above the C floor General budget shortfalls are unfortunately not one of those items okay thank you thank you I do have a a man all the way in the back sorry yeah thank you Eric Matt Bon 18002 Street uh couple things two comments two questions I'll be quick um first I just ask as a member of the township committee that you keep the Township in the loop on what you plan on doing with the Walnut Street property the building the fields there are many implications besides affordable housing there are zoning applications if you rent it out to whomever Park on the streets just keep the Township in the loop so we have an idea of what the plans are my other comment is until we see the presentation I'm not going to judge one way or the other is it going to work or is it not going to work I don't think anybody should do that just you have to know what you're looking at before you uh judge it and you shouldn't be able to BL it you shouldn't keep status quo just because we've always had X number of schools the other end my my question though what happens if we do have an influx of students come into the district that's my so we also have um you as Ryan said or I believe it was Ryan we budgeted you know that this building was uh built for a capacity of 4 and I believe 80 you said 460 480 students currently even on the agenda tonight our total enrollment is 369 so you're we're talking about a 33% increase um roughly to what we currently have that we can post in this building but that is also the thought process and running it out and not selling it to the point where if we grow and get an influx we have that option to go back there that is part of that um and I can tell you that obviously not only because we want to but because we have to we will keep the township Committee involved as far as the plans for that building as far as what's going on on and and all those discussions obviously would be in public as as those options are presented to us by AR Dr Fitz commercial real you would go with if this passes um maybe even the township committee wants to rent it and uh make a Township Center something like that who knows right we'll cross that bridge and my final question uh with if we're let's say the vote passes for that we're all here with I know we're going to break even or whatever with our budget then is there going to be any extra money so our teachers aren't begging for supplies like last year you know they were begging for cases of paper to come into the school we actually got them from I think it was uh Mount Boral or one of the other pto's donated them if I remember correctly I don't know if you were here for my uh my my speech in the beginning but as part of that I did say that rental income is not even included in this budget because we can't budget for potential um if that income comes in it puts us in the black for the first time in years and we could put that money yes back into classroom supplies materials and more and I believe that's part of what we would put that money into let me just say we carefully consult with all of our educational staff frequently we have supplies and materials our kids okay I want I want I want you to know okay we have that we are provide you that okay we will we will continue to provide it okay we will find the money we might shut down something else to provide the services for the for the children okay so no teacher is without paper I want that know none is without paper none without the exensions that they need for that M Maple Jersey my question to you is last year about this time the school came over to the township and said they were at a deficit of $685,000 that they couldn't cover now now you're telling me you're at a deficit of 212 and they're going to shut both schools down if we don't do something anybody want to fill that one in want go the county superintendent told me as recent as yesterday if I do not present a balanced budget I will be closed down what did the school board do last year year or what did the school do last year to make up the deficit of 685,000 that you cannot do to make 212,000 be threatened to shut down two schools I I don't I don't have the answer I can't answer that I I don't have answer I don't know you were here last just got here only got 40 years on Joe they're both except he's got more hair than essentially I believe last year what we're talking about is they used funds to CL that I I just okay so Mr MC can you hear me yeah I can he so what happens is when we had a $600,000 budget that could have been a carryover from the previous school year again I wasn't on the board at that time it could have been a carryover from a previous year then you asked for Surplus they look at see what was that deficit in the popular thing for a lot of school districts to do oh that was for covid supplies masks um and additional Chromebooks for at home so it turns into an account called an Esser Relief Fund so you were given SRA funds and you can only use those SRA funds provided from the state for certain areas okay but it had to line up it couldn't be apples to oranges the issue now is co being 5 years removed those Esra funds we didn't receive anymore does that make sense Mr mcf so you're telling me you were still using the co funds for last year Y no this year there was an Esser fund yes every district has an es it's basically Co relief from five or six years ago there's an Esra fund to uh offset uh cafeteria calls for students that you're feeding everybody and not bringing funds in you weren't charging students there was an eser fund that tell schools well you still had to pay for the food you're giving away for free here are the ESS funds from State Relief to use for specifically for that for that U budget line so yes we move to the presentation yeah say at this time some of these questions like I said I believe can be answered in the presentations and I will open it up for a public comment at the end at this time I would like to move on to the presentations I would like to close public move to close public comment on agenda items at this time move by Mr Dancer seconded by Mr Neil all those in favor signify by saying Iain motion carries at this time I would like to move on to the presentation of the school transition with WN Street and Pearson Elementary School I'd like to hand the meeting over to Dr Fitz and his administrative team let's get this is I want to thank the ladies and gentlemen I just want to make sure Dr Fitz can be heard I know there some s conversations but they want to call this meeting back to so everybody can hear and everybody can be educated on this proposal I want to extend my appreciation to all those who had opportunity to work on this plan with as uh here the principal with bar here with car and many others who given unconditional thinking and thoughts to what a school within a school should look like for children between school and up to grade age of how we will provide the services comprehensive detail of young how this to make it safe for older children and safe for younger children so I want you to look at this concept through several men look at how it is organized to accomodate all the distinct populations that we have then look at it in terms of our educational program that we will be providing for these populations who might be handicapped or children we will continue to make improvements on this program okay to safeguard all of our students it'll take us about 15 to 20 minutes to make this presentation so if you be kinded up to hold your questions to ask us questions that will help us to improve it as we go along okay Barry yes sir you want to take the lead yep um I'm actually not to you're probably more of a pro with this thing than I am um but I don't know if the batter is dying for what all right good okay just just so people know I the microphone okay so I think about two documents one is the current floor map of Pearson schol the second is a map of where classrooms would be and how they would be aligned if you look and I'm going to use my my laser pointer yeah right here to right here okay this is really the the addition piece right right here is where a door comes down if there's a fire P or a crisis that really separates right now this is a computer lab fifth grade classrooms right we're going to look to do a school within a school all right we turn this one the we're going be maybe 410 M for you where wal over here but it could be like there's a Bo around here we don't connect as much as we'd like to okay this assists Us in doing that so if you look at a home room 8th grade Home Room 7th grade Home Room 7eventh grade Home Room sixth grade Home Room sixth grade Home Room La that's the start of our day okay we start we have two homs per grade level then if you take a look at our square footage you see how much room our students actually get at wut versus how much they get at Pearson it's a mar difference outside of Sano room that has about, 16 ft every other classroom would be an increase in terms of size students would have no GR in addition if you take a look and then where we're located we would still look pretty similar to where we are right special head pull out resource would be here then we have six and 7eventh grade ELA six and 7th grade MTH because we had our teachers teach two grade levels okay with over 6 7 78 then as you look as we go down the gr levels then decrease fifth to 4th to third to Second all the way across what this also allows for is no cross polarization so one of the worries that we had is well what about a first grade what to see after what do happen I'm really I thought better with this F at this point so right around here are backwards these will be assigned for middle school bathrooms now how do we monitor that we're going to have bathroom monitors to keep track and make sure that the traffic flow students are using the bathrooms should other side here where there's other bathrooms that's where elementary students will use the bathroom in addition throughout that throughout here we have a special special classes that are dedicated for our special education population we're still getting those F numbers from our child study team once we have those then we can designate what spaces are exactly for what Bob you want to on this one of the um most important things and I've been in the district that had a transition plan is to realize that the activities in a school have to be directed in such a manner that what happens in the Middle School does not you know have an impact negatively I'm I'm stand over here I have my back here um have a negative impact on the elementary program so one of the things that we took into account is the special Area Teachers work on the special are the music uh SE Library would not be impacted in any way because what we're doing is R taking the special Area Teachers that are normally be at the middle school and on those days they be teaching middle school students here now another factor that has to be considered is how we transition our students as a school within a school conceptually a school within a school only works when we control the movement as well as the academic opportunities for instance a gifted and talented program where does that go how does that impact it has a second language those students that are coming in predominantly they're coming from Brazil this year all right so we added a support a certified teacher of that capacity we're also looking at improving our based skills that's so important to improve test skill test scores our scores have gone up all right the other factor that as a parent I'm sure the way how are the CH where the children are going to come to school how they're going to be dismissed from school we have to take safety safety is a priority not only in the building but how they enter the building and how they exit the building we have to also look at parking if you're an elementary parent you know that that's a serious issue so we have to take into account many factors how middle school schedules entrance exit will impact Elementary schedule entrance and exit now one thing that's very very important is providing services for children that have special needs and one of the things that this district has done it has taken the opportunity to hire its own child study team that will be a major savings first of all it will control pratically what's offered to the children that have special needs secondly we take into account do you push in or pull out how do you provide your basic skills how do you provide speech where do you provide speech where your pool resource rooms are where your self-contained classes are what all those things have to be taken into account when we lad out this plan now I like to say one other thing especially how having a staff that is provided with a classroom where they can maximize their instruction was a very foundational issue that we had to take into account now we're moving forward all right that forward movement requires maybe an adjustment schedule maybe a schedule maybe more time for map maybe more time for dos so when we build the schedule what Val and I have to do pratically is maximize the amount of time that the teachers are providing curricular instruction and also having a curriculum that's consistent as was discussed a curriculum that starts at C and spirs we have to improve thematically thematic instruction mity based instruction we have to provide the situation with the different learning styles are supported and having one building where you're controlling the flow of curriculum and having one building where you're controlling the spiring the effect of a curriculum can only really take place in one building we have not been successful in doing that we've had director of curriculum coming okay I like this curriculum I don't like this curriculum they throw out the curriculum you invest in a curriculum a new director curriculum comes in they throw it on they bring it up we are piloting programs this year K to2 that is very very successful it has increased our benchmarks unbelievable now what does that say when the children are reading better and working better and improving from the bottom in v all the way up this is not only a oneyear program you have to look long range you have to invest where will these children be that start in kindergarten where will they be 8 years later and to do that you have to maximize pratically what you off for these children academically we need to provide the support that are most needy children have and this plan will allow that you know I've been in this business Dr fit and I qu ourselves the sentury club 100 years together 100 years together so I I'm a dinosaur I do things oldfashioned and you know what the test scores in the four districts where I've been an administrator have all G up not because of me but because of a system and that system increases math instruction mathematics it starts off with addition you have to master that before you get to subtraction then you go to multiplication all right and then you go to division and walk from there you go fractions uh word problems and so forth what we're seeing now is the investment in more time academically and if we take that same process and move it all through 8th grade you will see increased scores now children are transferring into this District right they're transferring from a wide variety of districts in the United States the States from Brazil and what we have to do is look at where their deficits are and where their strengths are we have to maximize their stress and we have to address their deficits you know State Testing one of the reasons people that it's an impact on state hesting is kids don't know how to use the computers they don't know properly how to put in their answers so we had to invest in that how do you know the proper way and you only do that by practice and practice you know you're you're testing in Science fifth and 8th grade there's a gap six seven sixth and seventh grade right they take the material that they expect to have been covered and pay does a great job I don't mind you heard you don't mind me saying that thing yeah but when you look at the sence you look at a project that was just completed by five eighth grade students that took first place like you look at what Dr Fitz is trying to bring from stem working with the United States Navy we're expanding that poisons this is no longer just to sit in class school anymore schools are no longer like that you've got to motivate stimulate and engage if you do not do that it doesn't matter if you're in two schools or one school the children will not progress well I you teach your observations I look at three basic things well first of all I want to make sure that the for Danielson domains are covered in the lesson but I look at the type of environment that the classroom has the interaction between the teachers and the students that's so important secondly I look at the material and Mastery of the material the more opportunities to provide adequate and spying education instru the better your pest Sports will be and lastly is this a family or not I look at my faculty as a family I'm blessed God has blessed me to work with some great people they're committed to your children and as B brings his staff over the same commitment will be there will engage in development and growth so this is what I ask you if you have questions ask them but at this point where we are we're trying to put together a plan that will promote that teach keep your children and to be honest in a global economy down the road and transition to Riverside so there's an agreement of curriculum there's an agreement of expectations and there's an agreement of what progress is this point I I have her together so I do want to do her budget presentation and we will take public the comment on everything at that time was it doesn't work this is the comparison of the the past 3 years of budgets here in Delo if you go down the very first column the 2223 school year the very last column of the very last statement is overextending the budget that's what happened two years ago you ended the budget by over a million3 the 23 24 school year we were lucky to receive it's schooler which was over $600,000 that's what we're working on for this present year to keep us in the black the proposed budget for 2425 if you look at the tax L that's an increase 2% which is all we're allowed to increase by law you've got estimated preschool tuition revenue of 64,500 we have rents coming in from the YMCA that uh rent do the after school program and we also anticipate the rents for the library for the township miscellaneous Revenue that covers interest on our investments and any other um say if somebody uses our building we may collect for the rental of the room plus the codian fees so your total the 2 2,276 is your total state aid that we're receiving for this year we're using a million over a million two in Sun balance now this is actually wiping us out for future budgets so hopefully we have to we can build up Surplus with next year's budget so your total budget general fund is 10 million 921 92752 for next year's proposed budget than this is your total revenue including grant funding for the past two years and the future year if you look at the grants that is what we receive federal and state two years ago we were over 600,000 this coming year we're going down to 246,000 in federal and state Grant okay um again if you look at the the description they mentioned eser funds as being part of the current year budget which really helped keep us out of the deficit so this is just a comparison of the past three years and what we spense in uh the different categories of your budget um if you see a decrease the special special education um there is a decrease in that because of bringing things in house uh especially the child study team which we are now bringing in house if you'll notice there's the line from the bottom look at the savings by bringing our own child 17 they were charging us $24,000 a month for two people in child 1 um let's see I'm just thinking if there's anything else uh Health we are still keeping two nurses if the move takes place we'll we'll have two nurses in this building uh okay outside tuition that includes Riverside plus all of our special ad District students and again this is additional um if you'll see the budget between 2324 to what is going to be proposed that's the the increase in our budget between years the only um position that will be cut if if the war street is SCH is closed is uh we losing one codian and also we don't have the gr for one principal this is just a summary of our expenditures in next year's budget this salary of staff is over $4 million tuition expense this is not only Rivers side but it's also our special ed students going out of District insurance is both the building and health insurance for staff purchase services this includes physical therapist this includes occupational therapist speech therapists and anyone that we have to go to outside of our current staff student transportation I have one student costing $65,000 for transportation I have another student outside that I'm going to have to supply two a for this child on the bus um employee benefits this this is a pension information um this is pension this is unemployment this is tuition reimbursement of the 212,000 that's it is that it this is your tax living breakdown your taxes with the proposed budget will be going up a little 2 cents per 100 actually the ratables that's that's a mistake there the ratables are going down but 12 million is an error it's I think like $118,000 differ uh Debt Service is your current debt that you're paying off for your referend that is AE oh there it goes again your taxes are only going about 2% which is the maximum that we're allowed to go up that's it that's it okay any questions yes yeah I was going to say let's bring it back to this and we'll answer questions I believe that to be the best thing because that can go yes the board can ask questions also during this time um in fact I should probably let board members ask questions first and then open it up to the public correct so all right so first I'm going to open it up to board members that ask questions and then we will open it up for a second public comment on the presentations before executive session before the vote so um can you ask about uh having a question so I want to get go to you first okay you were asking for Joan um can you please give a little bit more detail on the number of children that are currently in the the the the areas designated for special ed and are those children is that I'm not going to say this properly so I apologize um for the children that now attend this it's uh they're schooling in special ed areas um are there special ed areas in Walnut that are now going to then be a separate uh classroom in this proposal down by the library right CL that's fine we talk about the separation of the Middle School junior high really around the laborator for the children need the special ed class for those 6 through 8th grade they're going to be in the areas of 14 and 13 no yes there's a middle school special education room A6 A6 yeah that's special here doesn't say that hold on one second guys guys do do you want me to give this to you as we go back and forth because I'm hearing some chatter that's so there's only one going back to if I if I understand with the special that's 13 I think 14 so there's three Special Egg classes are those children do they stay inate some children like a hand child only go out specialist like their AC unless allow bicu reading yeah language arts and Ma those are the areas that are usually Des that so um how many children on average are in these in these three classes and if that's please don't um there could be classes six special children for English but that same grp there might only be four that need for mathematics I want so two of these classes are contain that we develop programs my understand the first to third grade and the fourth to sixth grade correct so these are some of our that most restrictive enir be four five for Capital by state we only have as many as 12 so our program I believe we only have five or S they also have significant I challenges which then result in several um additional services such as Rel services such as uh Speech so you'll see that that is that that classroom just from common programming it's a revolving door you can't sit there and say it's English here now all of them are on the same English level so it's a lot of for a population and what they'll do is we'll generally C categorize it as okay it's a very broad andella if your I fits that then you thep office is to in elementary so any circumstances of volum 6 through 8 they're going to travel down this hallway to the princi yes I mean children so the presentation and information theour there's that clear separation between for any circumstance I'm not just saying displ the children from that right to get to that right might not un and then my last question is um there was mentioned of B mon and I apologize if I've heard it before I didn't write down um is that is that going to be incorporated with current St and what does that look like what is I think that's a term you might so as you look at at school it really is an attractive school there's not and I'm not it's my teachers and our cust that there's paper on the wall children's work artwork you know different writing assignments so um we want to keep this building as pristine as possible it's easier with an element so we have monitors and maximize our cameras because it's very important to maximize our cameras and you may have to bring some cameras over from uh Walmart to have more allall we as well as external um like where they ENT the building they exit the building um so there may have to be some uh accommodations like that but the people that we need in our hallway may require some adjustments in their schedule at this point I think and I their current so that's not that have to it could be a teacher and also go back to one of your questions there as well the first I the second on the back page of one of the things that was presented to us by Mr St and cup does detailed it should fund out assistant principal to be determined location adjacent to two rooms A2 and CST office at that point you see an entry spot there there's nothing that says that that principal as well cannot just travel to the Middle School building take a disciplinary scenario into the board of education office and do Fitz's office or whatever it may be that's very common practice in those particular scenar as well are for the kids they will beun thank you memb I think I raise her hand at first as well the budget is based on one according to the rate went down it was like aund and something thousand that 12 million was a mistake in my addition yeah it was 11872 the r were decreased I got from the Tex from the um our rate those went up a substantial amount hold com until we instruction thank you your comment will be acknowledged and uh for during that time can you repeat she was asking where the curriculum ready would go Dr thank you Mr I'm sorry I'm sorry one will it reduce the cost per pup any particular but it us to maintain yes can you repeat that my question was so how much money will we save my first question was does change the cost per if we Mar the school said no and my next question is um how much money will we save no we will not save any money schools but we will be able to maintain a school district for the children who live inun you'll save money on uh utilities because you don't have to keep the building as much you could have Mr sorry uh just two questions uh they revolve around this gym um the elementary students they're going to be able to use that big gym 6 Monday Andes based on based on the transition okay and then my second question revolving around the gym um it's been a while but I changed for gym class is that requirement for our six through eth graders and if it is where put not a unifor going address that I apologize so everybody can hear response please thank youx students you're I got you okay you can repeat to them you can repeat the answer to them if you that's fine um basically that's something that we're going to have to look at in terms of pre-existing space to see how we can maximize its use so we give our students that opportunity to change but we also kind of maintain their dignity too so there really not not designated we have an extension in both the boys bathroom and the girl bathroom there's an additional space with lockers and they can change so it's it's small everything the comment so that way everything can be addressed as a whole that would be greatly appreciated I don't need to be I need just want to have s of order so I apologize but thank you and I I promise I will get to you on the the public comment I understand that but he's answering a question was both and I just gave a courtesy as well to make sure that that response was heard by the public Mr mcne Quick question um this is just to avoid any unnecessary um what can we address that issue with arbl yeah okay so so you said you obtain that information from we'll double check that's what they got off of ew which is a state um number for ratables but again like like Mr mcneel said we don't want any unnecessary posturing or anything like that we're we're bridging that Gap and uh we do want to ensure the validity of that any other board members at this time okay has there any feed or notice if the Lango is going to be receiving funds that were applied to for the prek expansion we didn't apply the the um that doesn't take place the grant the release I only know from school board the State School Board Association I thought that application was due in January and I thought you have to have one full year of a 3K program in place this is still our first year still not yeah so that's something we'll have to do next January we had to wait for one full year and then we can apply I I think it's like some kind of an offet there was a preschool expansion Grant which we couldn't apply for that's right yeah we couldn't apply for notating operating right right so just to clarify our answer it's not that we just fail to apply for a grant Sly grants that are also U being looked at by the grant writer she'll send us the uh the qualifications to apply there is a great one for an after school program which we don't qualify for because we don't have the low inome children right are there any other questions from members of the board of education at this time Miss go ahead most recent um student Jersey stud performance school students have been identified and it accountability ISS be a to rece addition right I'm going to kind of come around for that um with the mic because I I feel like that needs to be I I can answer that one um yes because we've been designated as okay um the question was we have um a certain segment of our um student population that is underperforming as identified by the state and because of that and that puts us in a specific status do we receive funding that would then help us support that needy population the answer is yes we receiving $1,000 and which we will utilize to build programming to help support the needs of our students okay my bad so we've already been um working with um the uh the member from the Department of that uh all year long he's originally been working with um he's now graduated being working with with me um and so we're going to continue to implement a lot of the programming approaches that have been so successful at Pearson to continue to grow that not just K2 K8 thank you I think that um sorry go ahead okay um have we received any Buy in from the teachers uh great question great question I think we can we can wait for comment possibly but let's wait for public comment but I can say that um and Dr Fitz can go into this I know that this was presented to the teachers union I would like to tell you that we made a presentation to our faculty and all our teachers okay it was received they had questions and we we said to them these questions are so specific that we will be addressing these questions as this program continues to unfold okay conceptually I think they support the program they're just concerned about some mechanical things in the program okay those things we will address those individual mechanical things okay they all will have a room they will have adequate space for their supplies and their materials the big thing that they're asking about do they have to be will they be responsible for moving and we say no you will not be responsible for a movie okay we are also say sometime teachers have a tendency to Warehouse a lot of stuff that never gets used we just don't have the closet space up here and the storage space to maintain unused stuff that's been stored for an extended period of time okay so those are conern they they they have yeah but they're coming to Greater space they're coming to join a great staff that's already here and that we will have a chance to provide comprehensive and complete services for all of our for all of our young that's that's what we all right um what I also want to say in regards to to that just from me to the public and to the teaching staff members and staff members that are here today if this passes do not think for one minute that the DTA will not have a voice and be collaborated with as plans are finalized D DTE is Lano Township Education Association I apologize but thank you at this time we will open up the meeting no okay at this time I will open up the meeting for some public comment again on the LA and order propos and I'll have uh Jacob here just want to rate once again because obviously everyone is very engaged obviously this is very long topic conversation we're going to try to limit uh each person's comment to five minutes um before the discussion could I I won't anybody sentence but I will try to be good on five minut for each person's comment without we going to hand it back to okay thank you this time will open up the meeting for public comment on on the uh on the proposed and or the budget you have your hand up for a second please yes you yes can you give us the components of the savings from clitorial utilities and the amounts the custodian is about 62,000 to get a new principal over there it's about 10,000 uh utilities are probably 30,000 more um a uh we have a possible dedu reduction in counseling but that's to be determined that would be about 40,000 custodian custodian principal counselor and utilities princi for thisly 200,000 was 250 that's also not counting benefit packages right I just can't tell you if the person's on a single a du you know right now A District paying for a family medical package we're on the H for 45,000 for a duel we're on the H for 20,000 so those are variables we can't really predict either plus maintenance on that building is not included we have a a newer boiler with old piping who knows I think they're having problem to so that's not including maintenance well that's going to continue until the problem so right well if we rented it would be up to the person ten all right thank you thank you for your comment yes I got to start calling names when I recognize people um so wheny a okay um I have a couple questions in regard to one is in regard to the gym um you said you will have bathroom monitors how does it work when the elementary is using the gym if they need to use the bathroom are they going to be able to use that closest bathroom or they going to have to go all the way down to the elementary bathroom talking about an elementary class in the G the G so that's one of the sitations that the teachers have to make sure one of the reasons is to take the children to the bathroom prior to class you're still going to have to have some boys or girls that may have to use the bathroom doing that that's where the whole monitors and that classroom may have to depending on the situation if there are if it's a special AED child that already has a power professional that power profession that child back escorted down to this here I I to push in the line of fire but if you want come back in I'll just hand you the mic every time so everybody can hear a response and then um it on the paper you handed out it said that social and art are on a cart um and it also says like for soci things and art do they go back to their home room for that class period And if if so we're eighth graders because one class is special ed and the other one is a possible special ed so where yeah right so where social studies and art if they're on a c they have to be in a classroom what classroom do they go to during let's take L let's take L okay so the art teaching will be on a car and that instruction will be provided within the classro guys real quick it's hard to hear any conversation sidebar conf on your paper you have A2 and A3 would be Ela 6 and maybe math 6 right and then A4 and A5 would be math 7 and Ela 7 so then for that period that period of time where's eighth grade going for their one would be science but where would the other class go for social studies I know but like class because of how it's situated here on out where maximize Containment all right uh like let's say let's use sixth grade for example all right so let's say a sixth grade Home Room happen to be that period maybe going to get science so that room would be a u as a free room where it's a rotating schedule the rotating schedule because the special Area Teachers for Middle School are different days than the elementary school so the room availability depends on the schedule and what the special area teacher going to that grade level the only difference of the schedu it's inverted so instead of students going to social stud social studies go to them same thing I'm wondering like where that grade class be one period say first period right first period six grade Bea and math seventh grade you be an Ela and math in those classrooms and then and then science for a and that right there we have six total homeowners right so only four of the six will be in ela or math during that time then there's social studies then there's special so there's always going to be two that are going in a direction or S I'm just questioning because it says special education and possible special education so if if that second room is taking up with special education then where is that second a gr class going to be during that time all right so there's always going to be six of the eight periods there's always going to be a special all right but each class only gets one special on Monday one special on Tuesday the five days so when you do a rotating schedule there's a class open that's in a special speci special Le is only for language arts and math so it's not they're not going to be in that room let me clarify special talk are not special education specials would be art music in the elementary school is Library F and um what I and Bob I think the misconception is is that special ed is in the room all the time that's been 5 minutes we're going to move on to the next person just to keep the meeting will be along thank you very much thank I'll call on ver ver is had her hand up yeah um you were talking about the mistake in the there seems to be some confusion about um the number for the assessments and that they should have G up a lot so this is isn't this an important I'll look at what I got from but isn't this an important enough number that we should delay the vote until that's verified or it's not going to make that much of a difference it is Matt would you give could you talk to Matt he has the he has the rable amount they went up substantially we can at the end of the day we can only take it off the State education so we can say that you have needes and present them to us and we will take them into consideration as they go but please know we advise that that does have to be verified on that State website by our financial people just because of they is taken to do this does not mean that like that said the before the situations can't change based upon X Y and Z right so at this time if excuse me the rate of has nothing to do with the tax rate that tax rate is what we get from the state so ratables has nothing to do it's only the number of pennies that your taxes are going up but also I I thought that as far as school districts go aren't ratables a year behind for a school district no not this year not this year not this year you should I thought it was I thought it was there should be a substantial increase to the school this year because of the new de Vel on here I'll sign out you go while she and I will come back to for that with um excuse me not I will come back to Kate after R L on I see Mr bar with his hand up I will call on Mr bar thank you Mr mosf I don't need a microphone I have a loud mouth the ratables I think I'm pretty sure the collective Township committee that's in this room our eyes bugged out when you said there was no increase but I'm not going to speak for the rest of them but our ratables went up by 2,582 or 5.06% that was from our budget that we adopted last Monday Mr while um is today since I on my hand do you mind repeating that not at all thank you hold on um I don't want to rable the prior year was 427 m 585,000 179 for this year 449 0719 increase of 21, 486,000 so you're just trying to get e there there you go Mr I'm going to thank you for your comment and move on to the next public comment at this time thank you hi I'm if anybody please keep a sideb on the Miss ainson at this time thank you I have just a few comments um I work in the district I live in the district so had kids sched here and still have one in District um I know that you said it was not a done deal about the counsel I want to really stress that we absolutely 100% need two counsel 100% 100% two fulltime counters which we do not have right now um I know Miss eom at the middle school is invaluable to these children who seek her out on a daily basis for support yeah hourly um and my other question is uh are we mixing lunches 5 to 8 in lunch together how's that going to work I thought that we were not mixing I see no but Ione the back two three Lunes two to three lunches so that's not done we'll still be um 6 through 8 we still have one combined lunch K through 5 will run two okay it says and my bad okay that's just few questions cing again is a TBD it's not D well I just want to stress to the board that that really can't happen that would really put our students at a disadvantage teacher that was one of my first questions when we went this executive session to discuss see we pocon what's the cost of the move we have the cost of what the cost of the move what is the cost of the move so you talked about what are the savings to move but there's got to be a pretty big expense to make the move as well U believe it out when it comes to infastructure every one of our rooms are gutted clean so it's really just a transportation cost bringing the items over here a lot of the items are already over here with classrooms that we have that are being used in other capacities but it's not going to be as much as you would think it's going to be because for instance if I'm a miss Harper signs we're removing all those desks we're stripping that floor we're doing that so it's doing taking all those items out instead of putting them back we're putting them back over here right what about the parking lot the expense to expand your parking lot for the teacher say and lockers locker system yeah it's not just a move I mean there we understand canodate us okay we have sufficient space in the parking lot we will probably do we will probably do something in terms of traffic we might have a delayed opening for uh for one group versus the elevator group so those things we kind of like working out now to make sure that traffics smoothly and that we have the safety of staff and students as we're probably going to have a signed Park okay we have I would like to go back to addressing K TR M and the rest of the township committee that in the back that brought up La members from more prior year 427 mil 58579 current year 43971 900 correct yes correct thank you our business admin go all on to the New Jersey Department of Education website and estimated net taxable valuation okay that's what it says on here that's what we have to off with the state is 427 m5859 which matches the prior your number and that's coming directly off of the New Jersey Home Room website which school districts haveing to to do this that has nothing to do with tax this is just this is only in that means that they're going to said increase has nothing to do yes yeah we can move on to the next comment now we can move on and my understanding is we have $400,000 Surplus is there a reason why we can't take $22,000 Surplus to save we're using all our surus we using all of our Sur what about Capital anything that we have within our funds there's no way of accumulating $222,000 no okay so you're saying that we're going to save that much more money by putting everything Under One Roof and we're going to put six to eight kids with younger kids constantly and we have to worry about liability of anything happen with younger kids with the older kids we're going to hire all mon anybody you have to hire a principal again to keep that building open in addition to the other staff members that were mentioned which would put you in that deficit so thank you for your com princip make $222,000 you're still going have to pay utilities on the you're still to pay insurance on building building CS I don't see where you're saving your money you're saving you're saving nearly $150,000 with the principal okay then you're saving another close to $85,000 with the maintenance worker so there's your $ 225,000 which is really seems like you guys are trying to get everything under one roof and you're trying to cram it in doesn't make sense it's not cring in we're still we still have 100 student relief you know I'm listening to what everybody saying up there it still doesn't make sense let's just go back to my new thing of paper we don't need paper why do I donate paper every year why do teachers constantly ask for paper it makes no sense what you're saying saying up there doc it makes no sense cuz I know what I'm giving a schore every year and years half I've been at the Lano for 11 years for 11 years I've had listen to teachers almost get fired we have to do comeback we have to do where is all our our money win I want to know that this is ridiculous why do these teachers that I stand behind and back have to worry about their jobs constantly this is ridiculous well uh Defence out this was one of the first years in the last I guess two or three we've quickly quickly agreed on a contract is that correct M haror that is correct right now we're making this move to save jobs so that right there is a bit of a like a little bit of a I hear what you're saying but I can only tell you what the problems are in front of us for the last 6 months year I don't know 8 years ago I don't know about a paper shortage I've made my donations of cases of paper tows we all have we all have okay but that was also where in some cases I could say hey we were heavily dependent on a PTO five or six years ago and a lot of that income came from a PTO okay and then something happened with the PTO Co happened now we're getting back to where our PTO standard you see what they they donated to this year you know that's where it kind of offsets a lot of those things I I think I was in the same spot you were not a board member and I listened to some awesome news from PTO members that said hey we just organized $110,000 we're buying this Smartboard great I can't tell you that that happened over Co I can't say that after Co did those effort I will say those efforts still happen but did we get those funds back yet maybe not not that offset those paper expenses the money we get from the state I assume it's all for registration for the schools correct I mean there's it's like I said before it is a ly algorithm and that algorithm is there's a Township part of it that plays a role and then there's a state then there's an algorithm from the district that plays a role the problem that I have is that the curriculum in the school is still bad it's ridiculous I know so many people within this town they're sending their kids elsewhere paying all taxes here sending their kids out don't you think that's affecting your bottom line is so bad that you're getting short on money because kids are going to other schools because they can't cow up with the curriculum here so again now that's something to put people to do this to solve a problem the last 6 months under a new Administration it's a little too late I just I I want to jump in here again and reiterate that look you know we're not here to cram everything into one school that's not our goal our goal here is to sa the this if we could make wave the magic wand and fix everything like that we all would do it but these things they they were year these problems were years in the minutu it's going to be years fixing and we're working on you know I again I wish I could just fix it I a r $212,000 we need a $2 million roof where has our money been going if anybody's paying attention our special OST fir I only a special everybody special all thank you for your time and thank you for your comment all thank you for your time and thank you for your comment next rank do you have to have your budget turned into the county or the state what date soit the what asking the May 7 so you're only two weeks after and you don't have another meeting between now and May 7th just there's a lot of talk about the numbers not being accurate still waiting for money from the state and you're going to go the budg we just confirmed our accurates from our state numbers match your numbers we just confirmed that okay so we're up 21 million we have we have to Prior year as per the State website that we are required to Budget on this is a situation now again of we do have to have a working relationship and coporation between Township committee and board of education but again these are separate entities are governed by separate rules and separate policies that we're not we don't answer to each other but we do have to cooperate and we have to make this work but we can't work on the additional 21 million that you're saying we can work on that potentially next year based upon what we're seeing in the NJ home room but what we're seeing in the NJ Home Room black and white which is what we are legally requir to go on is respectfully we have an expert and somebody that it's their whole job their career to C like graft School budgets respectfully the township commit doesn't have that sort of expertise so we're rely but you got it wrong point I was trying to make was if you had to really vote tonight and that we make sure the numbers were right and whether more money is coming in from the state before you have go ahead and adopt the budget if you do know how on a taxable sobers two different numbers please look at you're voting on a tax that is um put in place by the state you're allowed to go up 2% that's you total you're allowed to go up your your ratables only affect your um tax increase for school uh so much for 100 you're vo tax all right har next would you no I'm thank you um I I Danielle and I would like to speak on behalf of the Delano teacher uh Township Education Association I I'm I'm I'm really really angry right now so I'm going to talk I've lived in this town for 50 years I went to school here I taught here for 26 years my two children went here my two children are doing wonderful I was also on the team for the state to write the curriculum for science don't tell me the science curriculum there's something wrong with it I worked on it I worked at Ryder University for an entire summer working on it the teachers here are flipping amazing yes we are resilient we adjust how many years ago did every single teacher in this school get moved all over the darn place and had to learn a new curriculum yes they were given different math programs every other year to learn there's where your scores went down not the teachers can now and I we're not thrilled with this whole idea that we're coming up here I love wallet it's been 26 years there I have to move my entire science lab here and unfortunately there is not much I can leave behind because I do experiments hands on your kids are ready for high school when they leave my classroom the elementary school teachers here I don't know how they do it we don't want to move but we want our jobs and I'm sorry but what these two men have done to get this together I'm sorry Dr Fitz too I didn't I I just know the gentleman here everything's not like they got an answer for everything right now you're going to have to do it and then you can make adjustments but darn it I'm sorry Danel you know me I just the teachers will do what they've got to do the teachers will adjust if we see something that there's an elementary school coming student coming in contact with an older kid we're not going to allow that to happen and I would tell you what our eighth graders would probably put their arm around the kid and say come on I'll take you where you need to go we you know just because all of a sudden they go to waral that they're bad kids if you have been and M gentility can tell you this summer we had some of our kids were wonderful with those little ones playing in the gym creating games they were buddies I can see a lot of camaraderie I'm sorry if I'm seem so passionate but I am passionate I'm sorry but I am theka comment com now is yours I don't think I could hold up to that but um I do know we are working tirelessly to to change our curriculum our Administration has let us voice our concerns that's how we got our pilot that's why we're doing what we're doing our students are growing and I'm so proud of them and I know that our staff although we know we don't like change and we're afraid of change when it comes down to it we'll work together and we'll come above it and we'll do it we because that's what we do here my response I would say I believe that that is why this is being proposed to fight for the staff to give the staff what they deserve to give the students what they deserve and to continue the work that has been happening over the past 6 months with a new Administration to write the to move things forward and to save the L of schools I'll move on to the next comment Miss Dar raise your hand first okay I wanted to know um I wanted to thank the person who found the Savings in special ed when I was on the board we were supposedly saving money with child study by taking it out from Riverside and then the superintendent became the head of child study and did he hire two people from the county is that and then we got is that what happened like what is the timeline for that Dr Fitz correct me if I'm wrong but number one you can thank Dr Fitz for that because the man you hir to take the superintendent position is the man that found those savings but if we go back to the time with the prior child study team just not too long ago we had two child study team members over here maybe what two two days a week and now we have um how many child team members and at least four days coverage so you're done your coverage now Dr CHR today we're just trying to build a very efficient system and a system that delivers services to youngsters Tim okay and we're doing it through a model of using experienced people significant experience with indepth knoow okay uh like I learning this ability consultant I believe she's about 2 days uh per uh about 10 days per month okay so I've got it down to so she's experien I have a full-time social worker here she's fulltime will be here 5 days per week so things are going to revolve around her I have a psychologist about 10 days per per month okay to do the evaluation of psychological I have a uh a director an assistant director of child study teing she's going to be here she's here about 10 days uh per month that that coordinates the ldtc piece of it so I have a comprehensive well experienced team to relate to the needs of the children and the families okay about where are kids where what is the most appropriate and adequate educational program to service the needs of those kids okay so we're going to take care of those kids so I have a competent staff I'm looking for other people to help us fill these needs okay but they I I don't have the money to put them into full-time position so I'm I'm I'm doing contracted work with them a contracted work a with a curriculum specialist okay that demonstrated how work work with us on uh on on on tuac bo uh we have a grant WR that writes the grant okay and that they write themselves into the grant to run and operate that Grant okay but we we are the custodians the business office is the custodians of all the funds that that comes in um you know father Grant to service our children and we are also doing some work for grants for on a Regional level for school other school districts along the river here because we are too small just for the grant ourselves but if B would become a part of it if River will become a part of it if the other City are going let let let's keep going as if we're going to the bridge Edge Water Park Bing so we're trying to Cluster with people to to deal with some of these issues uh we just we looking at a grant a tutoring Grant right now for our kids we're trying to see how we can find some money because you had you had some funds here for for some teachers that we had to put a stop to is that we just had to freeze and said look I need that money to make sure I can do these other things but if I can get some money out over here on this grant with even with these other school districts I can do some things with my my children during the summer here and even after school so so we trying to dig ourselves out of this dilemma that that that we're here I'm very fortunate to have excellent board that allowed me to bring things to them and I can't bring it to them we bring it to them and say give us permission for us to go forward on this okay and they they respond favorable uh to us we he we hear your voices as as a citizen group okay and I I want to continue to be a good listener to hear your concerns and to hear about what we can do for our children and for this and for this down I'm enjoying every moment than you yeah I'm I'm enjoyed so please continue to talk with us invite us to your meetings come to our meetings ask hard questions we just don't tell you what they are I'm Dr P off for five minutes yes thank you I'm go here to Mr temp next so I will go here first I should say maybe it's a shame that the schools going to close Okay uh it's a shame that you are where you're at obviously this is a long time making okay but wife and I brought up our kids in a town called hayport with some very expensive home very well to do we had one school building that went from Nursery School to 8th grade and it work there was never an issue there was never a crisis there was never a problem about that an eighth grader did this to a third grade or vice versa matter of fact the only the kids did to endorse what she said did H they even had you actually reminded me of it when my daughter was in kindergarten they had the fifth grade mentor of of kindergarten Mentor opportunities and it help them all to get to relation each other so like I said it's a shame where you are it's a sad thing I think you guys do the best you could and one it's a shame the school's going to close but one school did work thank I know nobody likes me thank you for your com I say I going go to Mr templon next and then I will go to you after Mr templet so thank you so Mr temp the FL is your at this time I'll just say this and leave it at that for avable the number that you gave is last year's number so so I would certainly make a phone call regarding the new number this year's number that work in also and leave it at that and that's what we were saying is based on a prior number but we will confirm it with the state uh you know we will have our lean confirm it with the state uh that the number that appears in the New Jersey Department of Education and jdoe budget online as Mr Vargas said there was a mulation for his district so all we can do is reach out and confirm someone who's had a lot of experience working with State databases there's a lot of mistakes a lot of things out of date and a lot of missing Fields so mistakes not always right we just clarify that it doesn't matter if the ratables are higher we're we're limited to a 2% raise in the tax it doesn't matter what the rbl are only raise the tax l% you figure out the path no the path is there on you you guys you guys are going to stop when we say that we have an expert doing this this is 2% tax levy is all we can do if we could raise it 5% and put it through a vote we would we can't sort it out as my colle my colleagues Mr Mr Mr Patrick brought up the affordable housing issue uh I would certainly have your counsel whoever that may be look into uh the traps that can occur with you leading that building the township I think the committee will also Tas our solicitor to look into that um there's a lot of Jeopardy with leaving that property vulnerable in the upcoming fourth round of affordable housing and that's we will T our solicitor with that thank you I can't impress how dangerous that is for what you're trying to do um you could have 200 Apartments drop on that property I would not call Remax I would not list it as available in Courier Post I would talk to the talk to us I asked you to keep us surprised several months ago this discussion came up not a word so please Mr Templeton with all du respect much of this conversation had to happen in Executive before it could happen in the public and be presented in the public which is what we are doing now to speak to you about this with detail beforehand would have been illegal and moral against of all and I would have been censored for it so thank you for your comment I'm just cautioning to be very careful going forward if that property gets reclassified res zoned for another use goes in there the landscape for affordable housing is Shifting under our feet we don't know where it's going to land and it could end up being pastr been trying to do period thank you we will with that as I said say thank you for I'm sorry I don't he your name to to call hi I'm Miss Nicole Clint I live at 202 Walter Avenue um my question is since you have this plan drawn up here when are you looking to start construction between building the classrooms and the park park lot there's no constru there's no there's no classrooms being added so there's no construction on that there's no I what we put in for with the township with Senator Singleton was a request to possibly um do a parking lot project we don't know what the the final that the finality of that is going to be but that would be that bridge will be crossed at the time that we get notification of it if you're talking about the bond referendum itself that will be going out in November for the roof it would have to be passed first and then the bonds would have to be um done and sold and and uh we would have to go probably be yeah roughly the following summer I would imagine if that's the question that you are asking um and I want to make sure that I respect the question you are asking to make sure that I answering it correctly um because I do do see that you also put in an online comment so I want to make sure I give you the time to ask everything that you want to ask I'll just think it very for the sake of time but um the parking lot I feel like is a big issue you know if you're going to merge as school you're going to have to make the parking lot biger to substantialize not even the school but our our library and the people here in the town I mean it's not just the school parking lot it's the libraries too yes and I think that should be respected as well so what I would say again now reiterated that there is no plans to change anything with the library okay um I I believe that kind of covers everything that that you would ask if I if I know correct I do want to respect that and respect what you are asking at that point but it doesn't necessarily also have to be one drop off um there can be created scheduling there can be scattered drop offs and Scattered pickups to ensure that the Overflow is not inan so that could come with knowing the finality of Senator Singleton's project that could come as one of those things that the the bank Township Education Association in addition to Administration collaborate on for Effective solution should this pass as well so thank you Iowa Avenue um have have we had discussions with any other school districts that are already already having K through a school with how their Logistics are how they've made it work like Riverside it works in Riverside so have we consulted with them to see if maybe they've already solved problems that we haven't even thought of yet all right I was the inter principal in hesport uh two years ago and that's a k school as gentleman mentioned and some of the information that I took from hesport being a PK to8 school I transitioned into this plan and to be very candid with you I will take you and I'm going to just this is a personal situation our eighth graders we had budy systems and our eighth graders were either uh made with a preschool kindergarten in first grade and I will tell you they adopted a student and they worked with that student throughout the year and to be very candid with you the relationships that were built between our older boys and girls and those little ones when we had our eighth grade graduation the kindergarten class presented the eighth graders it was such an amazing event and something like that can occur I'm not saying hyport did everything right but I will tell you it we did well systematically we moved in some of second directions I believe we have to go here and it also and again BR back to the course of child study Team all right we had a parttime child study team when I was there it wasn't a full-time child study team and that's what we're building here so we're following the model that I know personally when I was the interim principal in hesport worked well I was also the director of special ed as well as the principal and one of one of the things that I wanted to say our learning consultant was a director special a in another District Kathy's been a director of special ed in two districts you have Dr fit who's been a director of Special Ed I myself have been a director special ed so we are very aggressively looking at the major cost that has created part of our problem here we're trying to be proactive make movements internally to save financially an area of our district of this school district that was inappropriately balanced the percentage of special cost for a small District like this are disproportionate thank you I'll get Dr P and then I'll go to you Mr J I got a chance to have mon meetings with uh school districts here in Burlington uh County and I got a chance to tell them about what we're experiencing uh and what direction we're working in and they have offered good suggestions you know and pitfalls to to avoid okay so I draw from a big pool of resources out there in Burlington in Burlington County and uh my I've had experience in bringing together you know diverse population student population and getting them on one roof and getting the kinds of services that you really want to provide for the youngster without uh down in pinor Carnage point and there we built a school uh to say that we were going to bring middle school kids into that building and we were bringing elementary kids into the building and we got we got the community and we have rotary involved that says look what should be the design of this building what should it look like how best we can accommodate young children and and older children and they they did a remarkable job of helping us to think about the the concept of what the building should look like and then we went went on and pull that stab together and put them together and it just turned out to be a a grand experience and they're still utilizing that so this is nothing new yeah and then your observations your collaboration with us whether it pass whe it doesn't pass we going to go whatever direction we have to go in tomorrow morning we're going to go for the children okay doesn't make a difference if I'm in bankruptcy I'll just be font in bankruptcy okay but I'm going to make sure that I deliver the services for the children Mr Jenkins mic do I really need a mic I think everybody Mr Jin anyhow my name is Phil Jenkins for those you who don't know me I spent about 20 years sitting up there I understand what you guys are going through I understand where it is what's happening I got to give you credit you're all in a hot seat what is really bothering me and I I'll be quite truthful my kids went to W Street my wife went to W Street I understand the sentimental value here I understand what's going on you're in a position where you have to do something Dr fits I understand where you're coming from I also looked at your budget 20 years ago when we were sitting there the budget was $10 million and 10% of it was spent on Special A I see an $1 million budget but I see tremendously amount spent now on Special Ed I know Ryan's doing wonderful things taught on the special ed trying to bring the get rid of the child study team and that but I still see a major problem with special ed where it's costing us a tremendous amount of money when you knowy and Irene when we were on school board we had the same problem special ed was doing Us in I I can see the out of District placements are killing us Transportation costs sure teacher salaries go up welcome to the world everything goes up but when you start putting so much money into something that takes away from the teachers I want to see the small school be a small school I love that I love that fact with my kids going here but I'm a firm believer the state needs to take care of special ed funding and relieve our districts so we can get back to educating our kids now eam School District closed Evan school they turned around rearranged all the teachers they rented it out for a year or two eam is opening up Evans again the same might happen with here in Del Lanka I give everybody up here a ton of credit for what you're trying to do and I understand where you're but I urge everybody call your Senators call your assemblymen pitch a because they're doing something now but who's to say 5 years from now we're going to be in the same boat again why because special Aid costs will go up we'll have to pay for it unfunded State mandates kill us you know they turn around oh this is going to be great guess who pays for it we do a lot of these things that we pay for are taking away from other things and of course I want to see everybody's kid get a great education you're trying I give you a tremendous amount of credit for what you're doing there good luck than Mr Jenkins Mrs Plum hello Mrs Plum again so I just have a couple questions of course there's step steps there um what have you talked about the a couple positions that are going to be eliminated but what about the extracurriculars are any of them being eliminated we have Middle School sports we have drama club we have band any of those positions fantastic where are you housing them where are the students going to have a concert where are the students going to put on a play that's a good question that's that's a good question we're going to use our existing space as best as we can to accommodate the activities for our children but let me just tell you this I had the same issue in North Jersey where will we do where will we provide for the Performing Arts do you know what I had to do up there I rented Spades in the Presbyterian Church okay it was acoustically balanced okay for my for for my uh uh IND year concerts that's when I have that's when I H my concerts okay I've already started looking around and to say what is that Methodist Church there's a Methodist Church in this town and I need I need to connect with it because if I have to find space for performance for children I'm going to go to those places and seek them out and see can I get them so I'm not going to allow little things to stop us from accomplishing things that are needed for children okay so I'm going to use the existing space that I have I probably have to uh rent some bleachers or something you know to give a stage elevation Etc uh but I'm not above taking seeing if I can rent space in a nice in an appropriate place for the number of hours that I'll need for that performance sorry we're not losing we're not losing well enough okay we can also work out ter in agreement that says the auditorium over there is still hard also I love the facility of Riverside Riverside has a very nice Auditorium uh we are working on sitting down with superintendent Adams to bridge a better G Bridge a better relationship with them we can obviously at minimal cost I don't think they would charge us because they're part of our sister school we can definitely arrange where it's a 1.6 mile commute instead of you know a half mile commute but we definitely arrange to say we have this upcoming winter performance how can we through ml schedules or School dues rent out your facility so we can definitely find Alternatives and like somebody said there are some little you know hidden gems that we got to work towards but we definitely you know may maybe moving the Riverside would be a better idea because we know that the deler facility is a little dated so maybe that is a possibility that we should have maybe thought about a couple years ago because I know their facilities a little bit more up to date than what we did so we have definitely can you know problem solving I know several recital are rented out by BCIT West Campus so there there are other alternatives thank you if it is about 10:30 I do want to go into executive session soon I am going to call on Miss bouncing off the band thing um I realized leing our music room where and everything we want to make sure that they're secure but there are issues that still were working out I can I just make one other statement I forgot our special ed teachers are doing an amazing job and even though the cost are exorbitant for that component of the educational process I'm telling you if you would see the amazing things that our special ed teachers are doing they're worth every penny and more I have one more question about bell schedule um do we have a like a signal is it going to be or so let me yeah let me tell you about a school that I was in that transition all right they have they call a chime schedule the chime schedule was in certain rooms and it pro predominantly the way it looks now 6 to8 and the system that I'm looking at if we can afford it it actually has a traffic light and when there's a minute left in the period everything is green stays green when there's a minute left it goes to Orange when it goes to Orange the teacher finalizes what you're doing in the lesson reviews or you can set it for any time and then a red light goes on and a Chim goes on only in that room so like the second grade classroom will not be disturb by the end of the period in seventh grade I have a question does the school district have the money for that because I don't want to pay more taxes so you can have that installed do you have the money I mean how are you going to pay for it we we've just that's one of the things we're working on all right so there might be Grant there's safety grants that we get every year and that will fall under the Avenue of a state gr every District every District gets throughout the state New Jersey gets a certain amount of money stipulated for safety so that's something that that money could be used for to put the chime system in 310 Walter Aven um I've come to about we can't hear you hear you I've come to abouted meeting since I moved here a year ago I repeatedly hear parents ask the question what has happened to the money what has happened with the funding why aren't we making it why aren't the bills getting paid and I continually hear I'm not getting into that I'm not going back there I don't want to revisit that we're going to move forward the only thing I keep hearing in these meetings though is the burden of special education on the district as a grandparent of two special children it breaks my heart every time I hear that okay we have to take responsibility where we have failed and it's not special education children who have failed this the strength thank you it is those who are responsible to Steward District so I would respectfully request that from the board members and administration that we be a little more sensitive to the children and the grandchildren of special education students it is a burden we deal with I co-parents it is a burden we deal with from the minute we wake up in the morning to screaming children till we lay their heads down at night and to come in here and have adults scapegoat those children who were born to this earth that way as the problem when they will identify no other problems take no other responsibility for the shortfalls in the district I can't even listen to it any more special education special education special education I'm sorry sir I'm sorry that just really put me over the edge tonight okay I heard it from a number of people in this room on the board on the administration in the audience it destroys me I see people shaking their heads all throughout the audience it destroys me as much as it deter as many other people I am shaking because it affects me from the bottom of my toes to the top of my head please stop blaming my beautiful grandchildren for the problems in the school district and not turning your attention to those who are who are here to Steward this District now having said that I'm going to say something else I'm going to date myself now when I was growing up every school was K through every school was paid through eight a big deal I don't remember any problems it was just the way things work so I'm not really concerned about that now if you can't from what I understand you can't have a budget deficit when you submit your budget to the state is that my understanding correct otherwise State superintendent will close the school okay so I understand that correctly all right so I'm also hearing why can't we scrap together $250,000 and make this all go away $250,000 for an insti of this magnitude is nothing it's nothing we could scrape it together and something could happen and another $500,000 expense comes into the budget it's nothing so yes let's have a yard sale let's have big sales let's get together that makes no sense and let's say we did that let's say we were able to find that $250,000 that's for the status quo the school district is night from the bottom in the state when is the L going to stop excepting L the mediocrity for our children okay there are staing deficits here that's why we're night from the bottom there are programming deficits here that's why we're night turn the bottom we don't have a state mandated Spanish program and our children are going to meet up in Riverside so far behind the AIL to their peers because they don't have a Spanish Foundation minutes I apologize may I please a I too am the father of a special education student who's a prek student who will be coming here for kindergarten next next year you stated it is a burden of waking up to a screaming child it is a blessing to wake up to my child every single day I had a blessing of a special education child what I really feel meant was that the unfortunate truth the unfortunate truth is that it does cost more money to educate somebody who is classified so what we need to do is work with our legislators work with the state work with our town work with our Township in order to bring the funding in to not only just you know educate them but take them to the next level like they deserve every last one of those students deserves it myid deserves it your kids deserve it every single kid in this District in the state no world that's right and when you wake up in the morning and would lay your life down on the line for the children which I would I do want ask one thing respectfully I've come from a background with teaching with students with i i is challeng uh there has been recent State legislation that forces the school districts to send them to certain uh restricted like casac hey we have no say in that but I don't even know what kind of placement we have with casac but coming from a place like special services it rocked up my world as the principal over there where I it affected six of my programming where yes I would receive a stien or I would receive a um a tuition for that student well a town might say that was fine I'll pay BCS $50,000 as soon as the state said no effective 2017 you have to send them the castle back that acred an interest of $8,000 just for tuition and then Transportation double because that's in TR I just want to say respectfully they all there there are some unfortunate fisical things that we are handcuff um I'm one of the biggest Advocates here saying let's start a pre program that that pre program let's talk edgeart these are our services uh same thing for grades 1 through 3 same things for grades 5 through 7 you know I I I'm the one that says like let's keep our students as much as possible in in a respect of a least restrictive environment unfortunately I want to give the services the board wants to give the best services for some of those students and a Kingsway may be that best service and I don't know if many of you know how much Kingsway cost or Archway cost Kings weighs $68,000 in tuition Archway is $772,000 that is not CA that is also not counting additional costs such as a bcba if we're sending a student out for services 90% of those times of students need speech the students need physical therapy so then next you know that that bill turns into 125,000 and as you guys can see with fuel and you can see at the at the the back end of every bus our transportation cost have probably increased exponentially not 100% somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 7 800% I found a program for a student in my current district and the only program we could come to an agreement one is in North Delaware I'm paying $600 a day for transportation I he goes to school in West newey in never once was his mother or father need to feel the way the father of my grandchildren feel mother of my grandr feel or I feel about the language that has been used to refer to the of special children on District my brother said to me I feel sorry for you sorry because with Sten you see it you hear it he can't speak can I I don't want to interrup but let me see if I can closure okay we're extremely sensitive to issues that pertain to children were different but I give you my word and I'll ask this boor to give me their full support we will provide the most appropriate and adequate education for any child that appears before us we will consider all of our young young the need of whatever the services are the sture requires us to get it and provide it they put no limitation on the cost and I do not discuss that as a cost factor with the board it's the service to be provided to address the needs as being adequate and appropriate for that child so you have you have you have my word I've given my that word all across the districts that I work I've had kids in Florida I've gone to see about those kids who for and I was from District so whoever those kids are I own them in terms of making sure that there is an adequate appropriate educational appropriate for that child I want to do that for the duration of time that I'm here in the L call and I will leave a model for you to follow in terms of how you go about doing it and what sta you need to get it done appropriately in time okay you I'm sorry okay but I will fight for special education which is why I made a to hire with speci education experience I'm so excited about what you're doing you have no idea SOC at this time I do believe that we've heard most all of the concerns we are going to do um I would like you to I will do one last comment this is it please one last one and this is it thank you please name my name is I want to say thank you all of you for your your service to the Delan school board and this is a very difficult time I applaud all your efforts just even volunteer and run for this I know how difficult this is but I need you to be transparent with your each other on the board all right I feel I heard that you're holding back information with your team and not being transparent with information before school meetings and your board meetings so I want you to be transparent as you go into and make a vote be transparent with these new members um is very important and be clear with each other and transparent that's what I'm saying also reach out from the Township Board to reply if you can't communicate it's good to reply and have manners to say we're working on something we can't talk right now this is a great Township committee that we have work together reach out to us we are here to help we are all here participate to make the teachers happy to make their students happy so Eric and the board again thank you and be considerate of your decisions thank you for your comment um I say that as I find out this stuff I have been trying to contact every member of this grp if there is a board member here that believes I have been withholding information I'm sorry I have ey I can show all the documentation to you guys when I don't with the township committee we have an open relationship at this point I'm not going to address that we will continue to work Township I promise Mr Templeton a phone call he sends me his number he will get that at this time I know we've heard most of the comments I'd like to move to close this public comment section like a motion for Mo move by Mr bar seconded by Mr dancer all those in favor please signify by saying I oppos abstain motion carries this time I would like a motion to go into a brief executive session for confidential legal matters the brief executive session should last what do you say no more than 10 minutes I think they have to vote in public for this phone half I that of time yes 10 minutes is confirmed we will be back in 10 minutes continue with the agenda like to call this meeting of the Delano Township Board of Education back to order it is 11:07 p.m. for record there's a motion I like a motion to approve the school school transition of Walmart Street school and Pearson Elementary mov by Mr mcneel seconded by Mr s questions or comments from the board this is a roll call Bo Mr M Gardner yes Mr VAR yes Mr mcneel yes M schin no Mr Jess Mr saor this Stone Mr yes motion passes i' like a motion to approve the 2024 2025 budget moved by Mr Daner seconded by Mr hard are there questions or comments on the budget this is a roll call vote Mr J yes Mrs Gardner yes Mr R yes Mr varg yes Mr McNeil yes Mr L yes Mr J yes Mr cver yes M motion passes superintendent report Dr Fitz thank you very much we provide R to they have been distributed to staff who will be affected by the school within a school transition and ongoing reorganization consistent with stature and consistent with in from our board attorney no instructional staff it will not impact any instructional staff it will impact approximately three other persons you have copy of our monthly principal uh report you have a report of our attendance you have a fire emergency drill uh activity we also send you a report of asking your permission to continue to investigate participation in our Naval in the naval stem program uh that provided a copy of that to you and that will getting that off the ground in June of this year just for the close of the school year and that we will be continuing it uh the following year uh we using the stem program as a part of our enrichment program for our youngsters and strengthening our program in the sciences and in the mathematics for our children it it will take on the form of a part of our gifted intelligent program in the school district that we we must build and that that we must expanded PR I want take this opportunity to thank this board for making a hard decision we will move with great speed to implement this program to get it ready for September starting with the work at the end of the close of the school year to start moving relocating and getting people in place so that we can help good professional development in September to make the transition as smooth as possible I would welcome any of your observations and concerns you know send them to me by the way of email of the things that you think that would help us to make the transition as smooth as possible again thank you I need to do a motion for items one one and two on the superintendent report and then I can discuss who can be on that County Superintendent Z move by Mr G seconded by m Lan when it comes to the county superintendance meeting by Zoom I know I'm going to be asked to be there as president and then there is room for three other board members for this requested meeting on Tuesday May 7th at 9:30 a.m. if you want want to be on that and again like this is the voice of the board if somebody wants to be on it like let's talk about it let's set those final three members of that team so that way we have that and we can discuss with the administration uh you know the plan for that is anybody wanting to be on I don't experience I'm going to write your name is a volunteer person okay um anybody else so uh I saw dancer was no so I'm just putting dancer on there is no Joan has said yes are there two others and it could theoretically be two or could it be more I mean look I want to open it up to it's a zoom meeting at 9:30 a.m. 12 it's Tuesday May 7 you're welcome to come our conference because I will say I do plan on taking it in my so um but that option is open for anybody M as well so that would be five so I have Joanne Ryan Josh um and Shena that that would make it a meeting are you sure okay so for the names of those people to be added on this to take place in that meeting I'm going to say that it says discussion that t to meet with the county superintendent team by zoom and I'm going to say the team will be myself as president Ryan VAR joean sline and Joshua s okay so number two please have it reflect that okay so motion on the floor is already on the floor for items one and two with the amendment this is a voice vote all those in favor please signify by saying I I oppos obain motion carries bu in finance a motion is requested to approve items 1 through 7 in the budget and finance section I thought I heard mve possibly I'm waiting we can't discuss until it's moved in second moved by Mr dancer I believe it was seconded by Mr barg are there questions or comments in the budget and finance section of our agenda that's okay yes um number six and seven um first time ever going through something like this is considered Capital improval so I remember from the audit I know what a capital Improvement is um does a board of education have to approve um the expenditures cor no what you're going to do after this uh the Phoenix advisers will be going out forid for theing to get the low rate possible the attorney has to actually do ACH of the property like if you were buying the house right but the only approval you be doing is voting on whoever gets the financing and then uh vote on the project again until youing the bids for the and this is after it's approved on the bond referendum anyway education doesn't have to approve getting approv before this is done you already approve okay then okay we approved like the not not getting a new that goes on to the bond referendum but we approved the the research of this project to be presented to the public as a bot question what this is doing is and if the bot question passes is and as they do the the research for the for the ballot question those companies are going to be getting those bids in order to make sure that that accurate that that budget question that will be on the uh the ballot is accurate they also do Phoenix advis will come to a board meeting and explain everything yes yes so is the uh the architect as well are there any other questions or comments on the budget and finance section one okay on number five um what is this grel thank you this is a roll call vote Mr yes M yes Mr yes Mr VAR yes Mr MC yes M yes Mr J Mr C yes Mone yes yes this is dead at this point operation and Facilities there's a report on maintenance activities exhibit W does not require um a vote and just for the knowledge that per meum boards installation continue seven AA the boards have been Hing their classrooms here at Pearson for Le aison reports for Riverside uh construction on their bond referendum continues uh they just had their first track meet ever on a real track versus a gravel track which was a huge success I know Mr Bar's wife is one of the coaches on that team and an extremely proud coach of that team hold on um but everything continues there during the eclipse during the eclipse yes during the NJ SBA and bcba Mrs schin so um Mr varg I going to give you a compliment and thank you um Brian had asked that because sometimes my reports are comprehensive if I type them up and send them and I will this one short but in the future I'll be sending them out um lots of the latter part of this through May um so my report is on April 15th asly bill um a 4161 which is the stabilized school budget aid grant program uh aiming to restore certain state school aid reductions for specific districts it includes an appropriation of 71.4 million um made sure went to Trenton was my first uh public hearing and was noted with this assembly committee uh as one of the 100 that would be included in this bill uh the Senate version of s381 has not been scheduled yet I mean again sorry um they did take public testimony and um there were a couple of school districts from Burlington that were there and I want to say um so they're not going to they say they're not going to talk about this budg but it's definitely High need area and the other thing and I don't have the bill written down but it was talked about for the special ed populations and right now I trained I went to a all day training and I'm still very confused as Brian you have said in Eric it's like this PhD you need to know for the form is um but every school district receives 15 9% of their special EG so you get the money whether you have 15.9% or 2% and delo running close to 35% so we got a list of the Senators and I'll send it out and the assembly and every week just throwing out emails so um Rob does an excellent job um and has my opinion in the advocating for out to our Senators and assembly and their stand for them are they really looking at it all and you can see the proof in the pudding when you look at each hand and they they started a group of parents community members they call it an Al and they are making Headway just by advocating and keeping it up and they're getting a wonderful response so it works they do hear us so you know we have to step it up and maybe we are we just don't know about it yet but um that's it good job Mr MC Mr MC the is your just very briefly uh Township committee busy as always um I'll just stick to what I consider to be the major highlights um the committee is um working on um getting off the ground the project to redo the sea wall down there in front of the Mansion they're planning it sounds like a really nice area uh for um picnicing you know just a really nice public space when this is all done so that's exciting um the other thing that the at the last meeting um this was really nice um we had a little bit of an incident at the uh the Easter egg hunt um run by the township this year a little girl when missing for a period of time the township brought together the officers that were involved um in search for this and um gave them a a proclamation just honor them it was really neat um we had officers from all over we had our own officers were there but also from Burlington City Riverside Ed park there was also they also they also honored uh K9 which was really nice um it's nice to the working together and I'm glad that that situation was resolve how would happen so that's all thank like a motion to approve items a through F in the Personnel section move by was it m l thank you m l move by Mich L seconded second second by Mr dancer questions or comments on the items in the Personnel section like to say thank you to Mr pupchi for his years of service here as he goes off once again into the realm of retirement like to also thank Miss Farley miss fredman miss zacker and miss gillo for their service to our students in the district who are also on here speak to the Excellence of those teachers because they taught my kids they will be missed they are very tough shoes to fill but we will do our absolute best very tough shoes are there any other questions or comments this is a roll call Mr dancer yes M yes Mr yes Mr yes thank you passes under old business want to make sure all my notes are here old business uh there's a library negotiations meeting set up at the township and the board of education on May 7th at 6:00 p.m at the Board of Education Office uh M schin wine asked for an update on qack progress um in addition with the strategic planning goals and objectives so I would let you uh speak to that briefly okay CAC is still in progress okay we're waiting to hear from the county superintendent as to the date that he's going to here on on our ground continue to look at some of the work that still needs to be done will probably be the last District in County to be going through this school thank you under new business there will be a njsba retreat and during the work session of our July meeting Jesse Adams who was our njsba representative for many years has also wrote off into the sunset of retirement and uh our new njsba representative would like to host a retreat with us I think it would be a great idea we are going to do that um and have that representative with us at our July board meeting um that July board yeah it's on it's on say it's definitely on I set up the Google Calendar um but that's on in addition um we talked about the Committees last month I sent out a survey to everybody regarding committee preferences that they would like to be on I emailed every board member today with agenda updates and also put in there the propos those committees that I would have under new business on that form there was a budget and finance committee facilities and school safety curriculum policy Communications and community outreach co-curricular and athletic activities and strategic planning if we have three board members on each committee that leaves 18 seats for nine board members which means that each board member split the uh committees equally would be on two of the uh committees I first took what the people that responded to the survey I first took you guys and I put you in where you requested to be in where your passions were and I place everybody else um budget and finance would be myself Brian Varga and shemica stone facilities and school safety would be Steven Jaz Ryan Bargo and Kim Gardner curriculum and policy would be Michael mcel Joshua C and Sh Stone Communications and community outreach would be Joan schin Stephen J and Kim Gardner co-curricular and athletic activities will be Joshua C Rob dancer and Kim Gardner sorry hold on hold on sorry Communications and community outreach Kim I meant to put my name in there instead of yours for my second one for communication and community outreach that is going to be me I apologize I will send that out to everybody I had co-curricular activities and athletic activities as Josh sh Rob dancer and Kim Gardner and then strategic planning Michael mcneel joeanne schlim wi and Rob dancer thank you Kim for pointing that out thank making a note to change that um is there anybody on the board with with questions on that or or maybe want to switch up or something like that CU I just kind of like that to be um you know what it is at that point you know kind of come up with who's on those committees now so that way I can have um Administration start to set up those those things and they do not have to be in person they can be online and everything like that they don't advertised because it is not a given the makeup of the Budget Finance it may be prudent to go back I don't know part procedures I apologize all to have sh in meeting with the county superintendent schools because she's on the budget and finance I I would step out then the three of you would be in attendance that are on that committee that makes better fluid ready and if that's something that you guys want to do I I can have that changed um we can have that changed if that is something that you want to do or we can keep that superintendent zo committee as it is but I I will leave that to you guys you're on the fin and Sh if you're okay with that I'll change on does have Chang okay so shm will serve on that and also be on the superintendent soon and and Joanne will be um on that on the committee is she a volunteer for um I apologize know that's the right no that's we can actually we we can do that so it's fine I'm getting any yes so we can do that all right but thank you for kind of pointing that out where everything is okay um are there any opposition to the setup is there any opposition to the setup of those committees seeing none and hearing none that's uh what we will go with moving forward okay excellent I do not have anything else in my notes from new business from the work session my email so seeing nothing else um I will move on from new business and there is a section for public comment on non-agenda items again this is non-agenda items public comment I will open it up Mrs Plum that'll be nice and quick when will the January and February meeting minutes be posted on the website and can the YouTube video from meetings be posted sooner than 3 weeks after a meeting so that individuals can watch it I can request that Administration ensures that um those minutes that have been approved get on the website very quickly and also please have Dave edit the video to and you know he doesn't really he just cuts out time between like you know executive sessions or whatever to put online I I would like that up very quickly as well because the last thing I want is the perception that something's I want to make sure that that that is out there and I'm asking the administration to handle thank you thank you Denise Denise Walter forces for large line um I I just I want to make two two bar promises I know it's super late but um we need more transparency that was mentioned earlier um communication has to come whether it's the administration the board whoever it is I'm not sure but to the point of it not being posted um there was a blatant lie on the Fe or the April 11th you know thing that said it was stated on the website it wasn't when my son was recognized I went quick to the website to see when the next Mee EV it was not there so that's not the first time that's happened the communication to the parents this year has really lacked um so that's something that I would ask that we tighten up on so that we can make sure our parents are participating and that they're getting the information in the past I know parents complain that there was 27 emails and then 27 texts but at the same time we can't go from too much to none at all like that's just not an option me I will say that that is why I very passion mov and made sure that that meeting that's not that's not the first example though there's been multiple so that that's what I'm saying like I can articularly go through and waste time and give you others but I was trying to be very brief to the point of something to have a reason thank you and I earlier I did give the directive um that I believe that it is prudent to ensure that text about the board meeting do go um you know night before as a reminder for example right let's do that I know it was on the sign I saw it as I drove by one day please let's open that up um like you said I know I know we went from 27 million to what it is um if for remembers I can't step into the day-to-day operation but I can give that directive to ensure that that happens me so thank you are there any other comments on non-agenda items you can seeing none I will close public comment on non-agenda items at this time there is no reason to go into executive session our reason for going into executive session is going to be a uh parent meeting um we are we have a statement from that parent and uh we are going to invite that parent again to the next board meeting um to ensure that that parent has the opportunity so there is no reason to go into executive s so I would like a motion to adour moved by Miss slim seconded by Mr s all those in favor please signify by saying I I I opposed abstain motion carries